Wednesday, January 7, 2015

August to January: Questions, Readings, Songs

These books and speeches we have read in the past few months, most of them aloud to each other, on buses, trains, in friends' homes, while working with the hands on clothing and shoes and wooden spoons.  We have found this to be a wonderful form of storytelling.  It feels right for discussion to be an inseparable part of the reading process.

English and Ladakhi: Easy Self Study by Sonam Dorje
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Endgame by Derrick Jensen
This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein
"Beyond Vietnam" and "I Have a Dream" speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr.
"What to the slave is the fourth of July?" speech by Frederick Douglass
Iron John by Robert Bly
1854 Oration by Chief Seattle
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

And recently, turning to the history of modern India, Jammu and Kashmir
Walking with the Comrades by Arundhati Roy
Until My Freedom Has Come by Sanjay Kak

One of the greatest joys of this journey so far has been singing.  Old songs, new ones, sharing music with friends and family along the way.  Some new favorites:

Ashokan Farewell by Jay Ungar and Molly Mason
Cornbread and Butterbeans  Traditional, we heard it from the Carolina Chocolate Drops
Blue Nose by Stan Rogers
The Mountain by Levon Helm
Mairi's Wedding by John Roderick Bannerman
How Can I Keep From Singing by Robert Wadsworth Lowry

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