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First crushes, tractor crashes, volleyball smashes, first kisses, second kisses, comida, familia, motorcycle make out sessions, mas comida, more than besitos, heart break, true friendship, true love, esperanza, y amor = Send Me a Postcard

All Quiet on the Western Front

Just finished this book as bombs are dropped on Afghanistan.....
"A word of command has made these silent figures our enemies: a word of command might transform then into our friends."
"We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devil's like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony-forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy?"
"How senseless is everything that can ever be written or done, or thoughts,...when the culture of a thousand years could not prevent this."
"I am young, I am twenty years old; yet I know nothing of life but despair, death, fear and fatuous superficiality cast over an abuse of sorrow. I see how peoples are set against one another, and in silence, unknowingly, foolishly, obediently, innocently slay one another."
And so the war machine carries on and humanity cries....

Has society/humanity progressed since WWI?

Do you know what the 'Western Front' refers to?

Another Brooklyn

Who would have thought growing up on a military base, in some ways, is a lot like growing up in Brooklyn - the intersection of cultures, humanity, a crossroads of life, the decisions made, the hearts broken, the dreams dashed, children growing up to fast....

Where did you grow up?

Was it anything like Brooklyn?

The Last Star

I've come to the conclusion that I read too much.
Just kidding, I like being an informed citizen in the real world and losing myself in fictional ones. I just wish reality didn't mirror or inform the horrors of some fiction.
Upon completing The Last Star, I read this article in The Wall Street Journal.
It was too close to the fictional premise - because instead of aliens teaching our children how to kill one another it is Boko Harem - teaching children how to teach children to become killers. This is happening right now - today.

May we stop the madness before The 5th Wave or The Last Star heads our way, otherwise aliens will be the least of our concern. Though I'm with Yancey, hopeful us horrible humans can be redeemed...slowly, but surely.

"But the most wonderful thing of all, our highest achievement and the one thing for which I pray we will always be remember is stuffing wads of polyester into an anatomically incorrect, cartoonish ideal of one of nature's most fearsome predators for no other reason than to soothe a child."

How do we take care of these children once they find their way out or are rescued? 

How do we stop this from happening in the first place?

When was the last time you snuggled a teddy bear?

Salt to the Sea

Please read this book.
It was so very heartbreaking to see the parallels of World War II and today. I so wish history didn't repeat itself.

Which character's story broke your heart?

Esperanza Rising

The other day I had the pleasure of working first class for a charter flight. Everyone was being flown north to work 16 hour days at a cannery for a month to three months. The occupants, many of whom did not speak English, had never sat in first class before and they were tickled to have been ticketed as such. Whenever I asked them if they would like something they said "No, thank you." When I mentioned everything was free - the warm hand towels, the beverages, the meal, the use of the forward lavatory they were gobsmacked and I was humbled. 

I was reading Esperanza Rising on the jump seat and I felt as if the characters in the book were reincarnated and sitting before me. They were all relocating for a physically demanding work opportunity and most were from Latin America and the Philippines. 
I do not know what they will be paid. I do hope it is fair. 
There were two young ladies sitting in first class, one with her husband, the other with her mother and father...either one of them could have been Esperanza. It was a surreal experience....and just as the protagonist in the book has hope, so did these first class "Esperanzas".

When was the last time you experienced esperanza?

2016