The photo was taken in the Medieval Church in Inkoo, Finland.
The Great Plagues -- A Time of Great Fear
There were many time periods, over the centuries, where religion brought some comfort during difficult times of drought, famine, and war. Religion had answers to the mysteries of life.
The great plagues, however, presented devastating problems that religion could not solve.
The Black Death of the fourteenth century moved, at great speed, across Asia, the Silk Road, Africa, and Europe. There are no exact figures but scholars estimate that some 200 million people died including 30 to 60 percent of Europe's population. At that time, nine out of 10 people eked out a living from the earth; peasant farmers and the poor of the cities were the hardest hit.
Most people believed that the Black Death and the overwhelming events that followed it were caused by God who was punishing people for their sinfulness. For many, it was seen as the coming of the Apocalypse.
The end of the world was near. Fear, chaos and death were everywhere. Especially with the poor. . ." the story of apocalypse is an old one, one of the oldest humans tell. In ancient religious traditions beyond Christianity — including Judaism, Islam and Buddhism — it is a common narrative that arises in moments of social and political crisis, as people try to process unprecedented or shocking events."-- Elizabeth Dias in the NY Times.
The illustration of the Triumph of Death is by Pieter Bruegel.
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A Poignant Witness
In Sienna, Agnolo di Tura survived the devastation, and wrote a moving account of his devastating experiences. Here is an excerpt: "The mortality in Sienna began in May. It was a cruel and horrible thing. . . . It seemed that almost everyone became stupefied seeing the pain. . . The victims died almost immediately. . . Father abandoned child, wife husband, one brother another; for this illness seemed to strike through breath and sight. And so they died. None could be found to bury the dead . . . Members of a household brought their dead to a ditch as best they could, without priest, without divine offices. . . And they died by the hundreds, both day and night, and all were thrown in those ditches and covered with earth. . . I, Agnolo di Tura . . . buried my five children with my own hands. . . . And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world."
The stained glass window illustration is from the Great East Window at York Cathedral.
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The Book of Revelations and The Apocalypse
The Book of Revelations is the final part of the New Testament. Today, controversy surrounds virtually every aspect of Revelations, from the author, the meaning, the timeline, to its religious significance. The book of Revelations was written based on visions of a prophet named John. For a modern reader, the ecstatic style and hallucinogenic content are difficult to relate to.
However, in the time of the fourteenth century plague, a world of chaos, fear, and death, where Saints were known to raise the dead and perform other miracles, the prophesies of apocalyptic events made sense.
The illustration of the Dance of Death is by Michael Wolgemut (1493).
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The Apocalypse
In this excerpt from Revelations 6:7-8, published in the The New American Standard Bible, is the vision of Death, The Pale Rider, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The other horsemen are War, Famine, and Pestilence.
"When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. "
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Wonder Tales Survived and Gave Hope
How did people endure, for centuries, the dark times of plague, famine, drought and war?
Life was short and often brutal. Courage, endurance, and using your wits were vital traits and could mean the difference between life and death.
Wonder tales were often tales of becoming, tales of overcoming the great hardships of life, even under dangerous circumstances.
The illustration is by Leon-Augustin Lhermitte.
Donkeyskin is a tale of a royal young woman escaping incest, using her wits -- royal beauty hidden by a grotesque disguise -- and having courage to endure hardships, and, in the end, triumphing. This ancient story was told for many centuries where women seldom had rights and abuse was common.
The illustration of Donkeyskin is by Nadezhda Illarionova.
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In the tale of Puss In Boots, even an animal can prevail. Puss uses his wits and manipulates everyone from the king to an ogre. His cleverness and courage extends to tricking an ogre into becoming a mouse -- and therefore an edible snack for a cat. His cleverness ultimately allows Puss to gain a fine castle with servants and all the trappings for his simple master -- and for himself.
The illustration of Puss In Boots is by Gustave Dore.
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In Little Thumb, once again the underdog -- the smallest of seven brothers -- wins, even escaping death. In a time of famine and despair, Tom manages to save his family, including his brothers. He demonstrates that his small size doesn't matter if you have courage and can keep your wits about you. He tricks an ogre, charms his wife (who saves the lives of all the boys), steals the ogre's magic Seven League boots; and finally, tricks the ogre's wife into giving him the ogre's gold.
The illustration of Little Thumb stealing the Giant's boots is by Alexander Zick.
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Wonder Tales -- The Most Vital Connection
“For most of human history, 'literature,' both fiction and poetry, has been narrated, not written — heard, not read. So fairy tales, folk tales, stories from the oral tradition, are all of them the most vital connection we have with the imaginations of the ordinary men and women whose labor created our world.” -- Angela Carter
The illustration for Red Riding Hood is by Vanya Nastanieva.
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The Second Coming
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
This poem (excerpted) by W.B.Yeats was written between the slaughter of WW 1 and the beginning of the Irish uprising for Independence. Both of these events were like a man-made plague, bringing pain, brutality, chaos, and death.
The illustration is by Gustave Dore.
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Here is a link to Liam Clancy reading The Second Coming.
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MOVIES
Theaters are closed. The pandemic is here. Most of the openings for new films are delayed indefinitely or being released on video.Video rentals and streaming videos abound.
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The Good News:
Netflix is now showing Studio Ghibli Films, including all of the wonderful films by the extraordinary Hayao Miyazaki. Like wonder tales, survival or winning in Miyazaki films depends on endurance, courage, and using your wits.
One of my favorites, Howl's Moving Castle, revolves around exactly those qualities -- and love. Inspired by a book by Diana Wynne Jones, the film soars with magic, imagination, and a suspenseful story.
In the first ten minutes of the film, Sophie, a lovely young girl, is bewitched and becomes the old lady seen in the illustration at the left. She is trying to reach Howl's Moving Castle at the top of the hill where she hopes to find Howl, the wonderful good wizard.
The witch who cast the spell is part of the evil empire whose army has taken over the city. There are parallels in this film with events that led to World War 2. However, the film is also filled with hope.
Here is the trailer: Howl's Moving Castle
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Dolittle
Dolittle opened in Jauary with the wonderful Robert Downey Jr. Critics gave it bad reviews and it lost a lot of money. The film version is not true to the original story. Reading reviews and comments suggests that this is a fatal flaw.
However, looking at the trailer, I think that young kids would like it.
Take a look. Here is the trailer: Dolittle
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Other Ways of Being
"I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now and can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine some real grounds for hope. We will need writers who can remember freedom. Poets, visionaries, the realists of a larger reality." -- Excerpted from Ursula Le Guin's acceptance speech, 2014 National Book Foundation, Lifetime Achivement Award.
The photo is by Lamoma Ash.
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Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night -- Dylan Thomas
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
The photo is courtesy of the Nation.Cymru news service, Wales.
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Bellen Woodard and the Missing Colors
Bellen Woodward is a special fourth grader in Virginia: she influenced Crayola and there are now colors in their crayon box for multi-racial children. The link below will take you to the CBS news coverage of the story, to Bellen in her own world, and to the crayons for children of the world.
The photo of Bellen and her teacher is by Byron Woodard.
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"Paws 4 Autism trains service dogs for those challenged by neurodiversity or PTSD. We also train professional therapy dogs for schools, facilities, counselors and therapists."
"Haley was diagnosed with autoimmune Juvenile Poly-Arthritis in 2016 at age 14. . . Nikko came into our lives at a low point for Haley. She is on multiple medications, 2 of which are weekly shots, with awful side effects. Nikko immediately bonded with Haley. What does he do for her? He gives her unconditional love, he snuggles with her on days she must stay in bed or on the couch. He sleeps beside her and keeps her warm because the cold makes her joints hurt. He absorbs her pain and anxiety and he calms and comforts her in a way we cannot. He has no agenda, no ideas for a cure, no judgement, no pity and no disbelief in her condition. These are things she must deal with from family and the public, but not with Nikko. In public situations, Nikko is focused on Haley and taking care of her. This is a huge comfort to her. He accompanies her to her many physician and clinic appointments and buries his head in her lap to ease her anxiety and pain. . . As parents, we thank God every day for Nikko and the amazing organization of volunteers who train these amazing animals."
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"The second book, following Born without a Tail, is if possible better than the first. The author brings alive the small pleasures and also the pain of those who live with a pack. Rescue people have some of the most extraordinary stories to tell and this book tells them well. The pain of loss and the unexpected beauties of life are shared in this book and I'm the richer for the reading. I have a pack myself and I could empathize with the author and feel as though I'd recognize the dogs and cats if I saw them! The author has spent a lifetime in exploration of the terrain where human and non human lives intersect and left us this treasure map. Read it, you'll be glad you did."
Written by a verified Amazon Reviewer.
The cover design is by Wulff.
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Kidlitosphere
"The 'KidLitosphere' is a community of reviewers, librarians, teachers, authors, illustrators, publishers, parents, and other book enthusiasts who blog about children’s and young adult literature." Here is a link to their website: KidLitosphere
The illustration from Through The Looking Glass is by John Tenniel.
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What Happened to this Family Seeking Asylum ?
" Almost immediately after President Trump took office, his administration began weighing what for years had been regarded as the nuclear option in the effort to discourage immigrants from unlawfully entering the United States.
Children would be separated from their parents if the families had been apprehended entering the country illegally, . . 'in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network. . . ' " By Julie Hirschfield Davis and Michael D. Schear, NY Times
The photo is by John Moore/Getty
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Buying My First Gun in the Dark Heart of America
This is the title of an insightful article by R.J. Young that takes the reader into a world of its own -- Oklahoma's enormous Wanenmacher Tulsa Arms Show.
"In Oklahoma, there’s a gun show almost every weekend of the year, which is right in line with the national trend. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimates there are more than 2,000 gun shows held in the United States annually. But the National Association of Arms Show puts that figure closer to 5,200, or 100 gun shows every weekend of the year.
Wanenmacher’s Tulsa Arms Show occurs twice a year. . . located at the Tulsa Fairgrounds, covers 11 acres and boasts more than 4,200 tables and 7,000 vendors. Nearly 40,000 people visit the show on a given weekend."
Excerpted from Let It Bang, A Young Black Man's Reluctant Odyssey into Guns.
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Amazon Opens new Gaming Enterprise -- Relentless Studios
There are multitudes of young (mostly) people deeply involved in gaming fantasy worlds. And now. . .
Opening a new front in the campaign to dominate digital entertainment, Amazon is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into becoming a leading creator and distributor of video games.The Internet giant said it intended to release its first original big-budget game, an ambitious science-fiction shooter called Crucible, in May after several coronavirus-related delays. It is also developing a full-fledged cloud gaming platform under the code name Project Tempo. And it is working on new casual games that broadcasters on its popular Twitch streaming service can play alongside viewers in real time. . . Gaming is expected to generate more than $160 billion in revenue in 2020, making the business more than twice the size of the global recorded music industry (around $19 billion) and worldwide film box office (around $43 billion) combined.
Excerpted from a NYTimes article by Steve Schiesel
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Michelle Obama Is Reading to Kids
Michelle Obama does a warm and animated reading of books to kids on Mondays with Michelle. I enjoyed watching and listening to her read a delightful book, The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. In the true wonder tales tradition, a brave little mouse, in the deep, dark forest, uses his wits to escape being eaten -- several times. If you click the link, you can enjoy the book and the reading on PBS Kids. Link: Michelle Obama.
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Castle in the Mist -- the world of adventure and the human-canine connection
"Do you think that it is possible for dogs to stop a war. . . I said in my review of McCarty's Planet of the Dogs (Volume I), 'Author Robert J. McCarty has created a charming fantasy-allegory that can be read and understood on at least two different levels. Children will enjoy the story about dogs who come from another planet to help people on earth. But under the surface are the important messages of friendship, love, loyalty, and how to overcome evil with good.' The same things are true as the story continues in Castle in the Mist. The book is well written and easy to read. It will keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next, and, as with Volume I, leads to a satisfying conclusion." Excerpted from a 5 Star Review Review By Wayne Walker in Stories for Children Magazine.
We have free reader copies of all the books in the Planet Of The Dogs series for therapy dog organizations, individual therapy dog owners, librarians, teachers and independent bookstores. Email us with a postal address to [email protected] and we will send you the books.
To read sample chapters of any book in the series, visit PlanetOfTheDogs
The Planet Of The Dogs series, including Castle In The Mist and Snow Valley Heroes, A Christmas Tale, is available from many Internet sources and through independent bookstores of all sizes.
The illustration is by Stella Mustanoja McCarty.
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"Every dog should have a man of his own. There is nothing like a well-behaved person around the house to spread the dog's blanket for him, or bring him his supper when he comes home man-tired at night." -- Corey Ford (1902-1969)
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