Do
children in China ever think about digging to America? This is the question from Digging to America that gives one pause. I couldn't actually find out the origin of this game except that some wonder if it had to do with teaching children whilst digging in the sandbox that the world was round. There was no mention of the earth's molten core, but perhaps that came later at a more appropriate developmental stage of play.
This was all before we could use technology to figure out that if you tried to dig to China from the the United States, you would end up in the Indian Ocean. So I am not sure you could dig to America unless you were underwater. How does all this relate to our discussion about Digging in America, you might ask. It really doesn't. I just never know how to write these blog posts when one person really likes the book and the rest don't really favor the read. Mindy liked the novel by Tyler because it was about belonging and not belonging and feeling like you belong when maybe you don't belong and then you think you do, but then you don't.
The parenting themes hit home for me, with many too many people offering me advice as a single parent about how to best raise my daughter at a time when I wasn't really sure about how my choices and decisions day to day would impact my child's future. And then there were the themes of boundaries between family and public-what to share, what not to share and all its connections with our greater cultural history. As usual, we had a great discussion and I was left thinking about how maybe it shouldn't feel so comfortable if there isn't unanimity amongst our opinions about whether we liked a book or not because what is important about reading is finding an experience or a character or a situation that we can relate to that matches our experiences, our thoughts, our truths and leads our ever evolving selves to some place new or reaffirms just where we are.
Next book is Norwegian by Night which was suggested by Mindy to me for private reading and I prevailed upon the group to read it even though Mindy is concerned that it will not be the most discussable book. I am counting on everyone to make some connections. So far I am enjoying it and am making lots of connections for discussions. We are meeting at Mindy's on March 28th. See you then. 7PM.
