Raehink: August Reading

I hope everyone enjoyed the month of July, whether you read something patriotic or not. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about John and Abigail Adams. My book group read a novel by Irving Stone, but I read a nonfiction account of their marriage. I came away with even more respect for our founding fathers, but especially our founding mothers who led a supportive and quieter role in the background. Abigail was an amazing woman!

Your assignment for the month of August is to find a royal read...anything (fiction or non, your choice) having to do with royal personages i.e. kings, queens, princes and princesses. It doesn't matter which country you choose as a setting, either. It does seem that most royal historical books are set in England or France, though. Take a trip to your local library if you need some assistance. There are plenty of books out there waiting just for you!

Here are some authors that are known for writing about the English royals: Philippa Gregory, Jean Plaidy (who is also Philippa Carr and Victoria Holt), Margaret George, Antonia Fraser, and Alison Weir. Carolyn Meyer and Kathryn Lasky have both written in the "Royal Diaries" series for younger readers. If you'd like a mystery set during a particular royal period of time, try Fiona Buckley, Karen Harper, or Patricia Finney.

I picked up three titles at the library: Jean Plaidy's The Lady in the Tower (about Anne Boleyn) and In the Shadow of the Crown (about Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon) and Philippa Gregory's The Constant Princess (also about Katherine of Aragon). I'll let you know which one I chose at the end of the month.

Happy reading!

Raehink: Regarding Common Sense

I'm excited that you are reading Paine's "pamphlet" to the colonists. In my reading about John and Abigail Adams, I discovered that John reacted negatively to Common Sense and even wrote a response to it that was published in newspapers. It's intriguing that those founding men didn't always agree on these heady issues, and yet they were able to pull it all together in a way that was ultimately inspired. I think our current senators and representatives have entirely forgotten how to do that! They could benefit from some early history. I look forward to your commonsensical comments.

Good luck on the house and baby. I love the name Tabitha, by the way. And it's particularly colonial!

Happy reading!

Lynness- Common Sense

I've decided I'm going to try Common Sense, by Thomas Paine.  I googled "patriotic reading list" and found one that included some pretty hefty titles.  I figured I had time for this one.  I also decided that I'm going to make comments as I go, instead of at the end, since we're about to get really busy (we think we'll have a contract on our house by the end of the day, and I've got about 3 weeks until Tabitha makes her debut...).  That way I get SOMETHING posted, even if I don't get to finish it.

The first section of his treatise is on the origin and design of government.  Here's a quote:
“...Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest...” (underlining by me)

That's the zinger- we elect someone (and I'm not talking about anyone- president, senator, etc. in particular) or vote for some measure that we think will bring about needed change, only to find that we've created a monster that we now have to live with.  We make laws to address issues which down the road create bigger concerns- and all this we have visited upon ourselves.
I find it interesting- and correct- that he compares the need for government to a fallen state.  I think of the Millennium and wonder how wonderfully different it will be when Christ reigns personally on the earth.  Millennial peace will be possible because the grossest wickedness will have been destroyed at Christ's 2nd coming.  Certainly in the Celestial kingdom, if not in Zion on earth in the Millennium, we will need no government of the type man creates, for we will be better governed by ourselves.

On another note...wouldn't it be nice if everyone in a government position (and all of us who elect our leaders) remembered this line?
“I draw my idea of the form of government from a principle in nature which no art can overturn, viz. that the more simple any thing is, the less liable it is to be disordered, and the easier repaired when disordered;” (underlining by me)
In a time when bureaucracy and red tape and delay and complication are synonymous with government and the whole organization is so complex that I don't believe anyone quite understands all the ramifications of any changes implemented, since they affect so many other things, how are we even supposed to begin reform?

That's enough for now!