Éowyn, Hermione, and the “Secondary World”

NOTE: This essay contains spoilers for both The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter (books and films).

As long as there have been stories, there have almost certainly been debates over which ones are best. These discussions are tricky, because people hold different views of what a good story is. Yet when popular modern fiction stories are mentioned, the names of British authors John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and Joanne Rowling are almost certain to be included. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Rowling’s Harry Potter have left undeniable marks on the world of fantasy and popular culture, from their first publications, through highly successful films, action figures, Internet fan forums, theme parks, and beyond.

Not surprisingly, The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter each have their own legions of devoted fans–many of whom are so loyal to their preferred story that they mock fans of the other story. To be a fan of both can be dangerous, and examining them academically might be worse. Yet it is a tempting thing to do, particularly when the issue of Tolkien and Rowling’s female characters is taken into consideration.

Rowling has been hailed as elevating women to new and empowered positions in fantasy. Tolkien, on the other hand, has been criticized in recent times for marginalizing women. This should not be surprising. Tolkien was a male writing during the 1900s, while Rowling is a female author writing in a contemporary setting. The way gender is perceived and presented has changed between their stories’ publications. But is it true that Rowling has advanced the female fantasy character that Tolkien marginalized?

A quick read or watch of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter series makes clear the fact that women are more numerous in Rowling’s story. However, to say Rowling’s women trump Tolkien’s by sheer dint of their more numerous appearances is to take the easy way out. Truly answering the question of female portrayals requires going beyond a simple count of how many lines women have or how many times they appear. Only by digging deeper to examine their character qualities and how they fit into the stories of Tolkien and Rowling, can their importance be accurately determined (Enright).

In his essay entitled, “On Fairy-Stories,” Tolkien described the work of a fantasy author:

“[T]he story-maker…” he wrote, “[creates] a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking at the little abortive Secondary World from outside (12).”

When creating their “Secondary World,” authors often base their works, at least loosely, on actual historical periods and settings. This lends their fantasies a grounding in the real world, but unless they create characters that are true to the period and setting they have chosen, their efforts are wasted. Therefore, a certain retention of traditional gender roles within historical eras and settings is necessary in order to create a realistic “Secondary World.”

This is one reason that Rowling’s female characters may seem more empowered than Tolkien’s. In the world she created, Rowling combined medieval elements with more contemporary ones. Whether you believe this blend has created a successful fantasy or not, the end result is the same. Women in Harry Potter can behave more like women of the contemporary western world without breaking the “Secondary World” of their story.

Rowling’s character Hermione Granger is a good example of this. Hermione is a “Muggle-born” (child of non-wizards) schoolgirl, hard working, academically talented, and a friend–not girlfriend–of Harry Potter. Of all the females in Rowling’s series, Hermione receives the most “ink time” and screen time. She is present from nearly the very beginning of the story, albeit, at first, as a rather bossy, know-it-all girl.

As she matures, she loses a lot of her bossiness, but continues to grow smarter. Rubeus Hagrid, the groundskeeper of Hogwarts School, says “they haven't invented a spell our Hermione [can’t] do” (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). Often, her magic skills and rational thinking are the means of salvation for her friends, such as when she identifies a mysterious, dangerous beast plaguing the school in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets or finds a way for Harry Potter to pass his first Triwizard Tournament test in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling).

Though she is naturally bright, Hermione also works hard, taking more classes than any of her friends and diligently doing her homework. One year, she even tries using a Time-Turner that allows her to go back in time so she can take three classes at once. When this makes her life too stressful, she stubbornly perseveres until she nearly has a nervous breakdown. At the end of the year, she realizes her folly, and ceases to use the Time-Turner, but continues to do well in her studies (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban).

Though women are stereotypically seen as perhaps too emotional, Hermione is frequently the one bringing her somewhat more flighty friends, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, back to earth when they edge into far-fetched speculations. However, she is not all rationality. Hermione loves, becomes deeply hurt, freaks out, gets jealous, breaks the school rules, and is not above rage or hatred.

Sometimes, her anger drives her to violence, such as when she slaps her enemy, Draco Malfoy, after he provokes her (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). At other times, it is a more positive force, such as when she founds The Society for Promotion of Elfish Welfare to protest house elf enslavement (Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). In both cases, Hermione is clearly not someone who will take abuse or discrimination quietly. The term “empowered female” seems to describe her well, so it is no wonder she fits quite easily into a modern, Western idea of femininity.

Hermione might, however, have a more difficult time fitting into Tolkien’s world of Middle Earth. The setting of The Lord of the Rings is, in many ways, a more thoroughly medieval one than that of Harry Potter and therefore requires a medieval approach to women. Yet, women are present and have a more important and active part than is obvious at first glance.

Of these women, Lady Éowyn is most visible and directly involved in the story. When she is introduced in The Two Towers, Éowyn is an orphaned young woman caring for her prematurely dotard uncle, King Théoden. The privileges of education and equality with men that Hermione enjoys are nearly unheard of, to her, and she appears to be a helpless character.

However, when she is released from her caretaking duties, Éowyn is revealed to be another sort of woman entirely. The king rides off to war and leaves her to rule in his absence, though there are plenty of males available. He trusts her to lead his people and his trust is not misplaced as Éowyn rules them well (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings).

Yet she is not happy staying at home, even in a position of political leadership. When asked what she fears, Éowyn replies, “A cage. To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire” (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers).

This “fear,” combined with true patriotism, and an event in which her love for another is spurned, leads Éowyn to disguise herself as a male warrior and ride to war with her people. Her success at keeping her secret during the entire journey to the front hints at her cleverness. Even her own uncle and brother fail to see through her disguise (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings).

Not only is she smart, but she is courageous as well. When Éowyn encounters the evil Witch-King of Angmar, head of the Ringwraiths, she refuses to back away. Instead, she holds her ground as he smites her arm a crushing blow and taunts her, saying, “No living man may hinder me!” In response, she removes her helmet, revealing her feminine features and informs him, with a touch of irony, “No living man am I!” Éowyn then proceeds to slay him (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings).

As Éowyn recovers from an injury received in this battle, she slowly falls in love with a man who has also been wounded (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings). Their love story, some have argued, is the story of her “taming,” but Éowyn’s power does not rest only in fighting or ruling like a man (Enright). She is equally strong in battle, love, and healing—a role she chooses to take up once the war is over. These traits make clear that Éowyn is an empowered woman who will break gender expectations to do what she believes in.

Both she and Hermione are notable within the “Secondary Worlds” their authors have set them. Hermione is a bright student, loyal friend, and supporter of justice, while Éowyn is a courageous leader, fighter, and eventually lover and healer. They are only two examples of the females in Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings, but they are representatives of their fellow women characters. Though there are certainly characters in both stories that adhere to more traditional female roles–such as Rowling’s matronly Mrs. Weasley and Tolkien’s love-interest Arwen–even they are strong in their own ways.

So has Rowling furthered empowered femininity that Tolkien marginalized? Not quite. Tolkien has created female characters, like Lady Éowyn, who fit into a medieval world, but are still empowered. However, Rowling has created female characters, such as Hermione Granger, who may be easier for a modern audience to relate to.

Does this make Harry Potter a better story than The Lord of the Rings? That question will doubtless continue to be debated strongly, as will the issue of female gender roles in stories and life. Most likely, there will never be an absolute answer, because there are so many opinions that shape it. One thing is certain, though. Both Tolkien and Rowling have given readers and viewers fantasy stories with empowered female characters to enjoy, learn from, and admire. •

Works Cited

Alberti, John. Text Messaging: Reading and Writing About Popular Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company, 2009. Print.

Enright, Nancy. "Tolkien's Females and the Defining of Power." Renascence. Winter.59.2 (2007): 93-108. Print.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Dir. Chris Columbus. Perf. Daniel Radcliffe, Richard Harris, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Robbie Coltrane. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2002. DVD.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Dir. Mike Newell. Perf. Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Robbie Coltrane. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2005. DVD.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Dir. David Yates. Perf. Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2009. DVD.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Dir. David Yates. Perf. Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Robbie Coltrane. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2007. DVD.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Dir. Alfonso Cuarón. Perf. Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Gambon, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Robbie Coltrane, Gary Oldman. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2004. DVD.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Dir. Chris Columbus. Perf. Daniel Radcliffe, Richard Harris, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Robbie Coltrane. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2001. DVD.

The Harry Potter Lexicon. Web. 30 Nov. 2009.

The Internet Movie Database. Web. 08 Nov. 2009.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett. New Line Cinema, 2001. DVD.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett. New Line Cinema, 2003. DVD.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Dir. Peter Jackson. Perf. Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett. New Line Cinema, 2002. DVD.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1999. Print.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2000. Print.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2003. Print.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1999. Print.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1998. Print.

Tolkien, J. R. R. "On Fairy Stories." Brainstorm Communication Services. West Chester University, 2005. Web. 30 Nov. 2009.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Lord of the Rings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.

Wolfgram, Susan M., and Amy Collier. "Gender-Informed Parenting: A Review of the Film Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Why Not Hermione Granger?" Journal of Feminist Family Therapy. 14.3/4 (2002): 130-32. Print.


Éowyn & Hermione Art Credits:
Hermione photograph, from freewebs.com.
Éowyn photograph, from webspace.webring.com.
'Gimp Grungey Brushes,' by =NinjaBunnyX of deviantart.

Christmas Bells, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."

~

Clip art from christmasgifts.com.
Poem from potw.org/archive/potw118.html.

Be Still and Know

“It’s so quiet in here.” If you’ve ever been in a room full of people when there is a brief lull in conversation you’ve probably heard those words. They are usually followed by nervous laughter and renewed talk. Have you ever wondered why?

We live in a world of car horns and cell phone ring tones, blaring music and shouting matches. Even when our environment is relatively soundless, our thoughts buzz on. Noise is everywhere. We are used to sound surrounding us. Perhaps the reason we have so much noise is because we are unfamiliar, and thus uncomfortable, with quiet.

“Be still and know that I am God,” says Psalms 46:10 (The Bible, New International Version). It was a command that George Fox took to heart in the mid-1600s. Fox was born in England in July of 1624. During the years of his youth, religious civil war rocked his country and as he grew older, he began to struggle for spiritual insight. For eight years, he consulted “Anglican Priests and Puritan ministers” but no one could answer his questions to his satisfaction (Timeline).

‘“When all my hopes in [the clergy] and in all men were gone,” Fox wrote in his Journal, “so that I had nothing upwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition"; and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy (Timeline).’ This experience influenced Fox to begin preaching a new Christian message that emphasized direct connection with God. He called this connection the “Inner Light”.

Fox and his followers eventually formed a Protestant denomination called The Society of Friends or Quakers. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church’s–or even the Church of England’s–hierarchical, highly ritualized, traditional and ornate way of worship, the Quakers’ belief in the Inner Light “led them to reject both formal ministry and all set forms of worship (Quaker).” Instead, they meet together in silence and wait for the Inner Light to move them to speak. When I first attended a Quaker meeting (church service) with a class of university students on Sunday, September 27th, 2009, I was able to experience this first hand.

The meetinghouse we visited was not a traditional one and the congregation was actually a combination of several smaller groups. Our college class more than doubled the congregation size. Traditional Quakers are becoming very rare in the United States, a fact that was echoed in the older age of the congregants, though there were a few younger members.

The outside of the meetinghouse was rather non-descript. Inside, there was a medium-size room where we gathered for the meeting. It was earth tone and plain, with padded wooden pews. These faced inward to form a square shape, with one bench making each side and several more benches lined up behind each of the middle four.

I missed the very beginning of the meeting, so I can’t describe how it began, but when I took my seat on a pew, everyone was quiet. They were not, however, silent. There was an infant with one of the Quakers who made noise throughout the meeting. My fellow students were also restless and even their slight movements made noise.

As the length of the quiet increased, I found that it was difficult to still my inner noise. Thoughts varying from the mundane–hmm… the carpet is brown–to the somewhat more interesting–that young man is sitting so properly–kept running through my head. Then I remembered how centering your thoughts on your breathing can calm you, so I started to focus on my breath. As I did, I found that a lot of the noise inside me died down.

Eventually, different “noise” came instead. Bible verses and Christian lyrics came to mind and I meditated on them. Then, just when I felt I’d finally settled down, one of the Quakers rose and began to speak. She was not the only one to speak throughout the service. Gradually, with many pauses in between, people shared what they felt the Inner Light was moving them to say. Some read or quoted from the Bible, while others simply talked or prayed. One woman shared a story from the life of George Fox. Another spoke using a rather archaic-sounding form of English.

After about an hour, some of the members sitting on the middle pews stood up and began to shake hands. This signaled the end of the meeting and I stood to follow their lead. I filed out of the meetinghouse behind my fellow university students in a more quiet mood than I had been in before. While I don’t think I’d like to worship in the Quaker fashion every Sunday, it was a unique chance to let the world around me, and the world within me, become still. This helped me focus on God and what He wanted me to know.

Outside of their meetinghouses, the Quakers’ beliefs in simplicity and pacifism have impacted their lives and the lives of those they come into contact with throughout the ages. In the past, they have suffered persecution for their refusal to fight in wars or to submit to various systems of belief. However, because of their belief in equality, they have also had an important part in ending many wrongs in the world, including slavery (Dannheisser). I pray that this spirit of tolerance and peace will live beyond the dwindling congregations of traditional Quakers. The world will be a better place if it does.

~

Works Cited

The Bible, New International Version.
Bible Gateway. 13 October 2009. Web.

Dannheisser, Ralph. Quakers Played Major Role in Ending Slavery in United States.
America.gov. 12 November 2008. Web.

Fox, George. Jones, Matthew. George Fox; an Autobiography.
Google Books. 12 October 2009. Web.

Johnson, Ronald. Personal interview with the author. Canton, Ohio. 13 October 2009.

Quaker. Oxford American Dictionaries.

Richstatter, Thomas, O.F.M. A Walk Through the Mass: A Step-by-Step Explanation.
American Catholic. 12 September 2009. Web.

Timeline of George Fox. Merry L. Cook Public Library. 22 August 2006.
12 October 2009. Web.

Finding a Balance

Written in response to What's Wrong With Cinderella?, article by Peggy Orenstein, featured in the NY Times, 24 December 2006 and in Text Messaging: Reading and Writing About Popular Culture, by John Alberti. Her article may be found HERE.

I am not a mother, but I have been a young girl. During my two decades of life, I have seen twists and trends in the way women are perceived and portrayed. In response to the modern melee of conflicting messages toward and from females, I base my views on my own childhood, which was, in some ways, unusual.

Unlike many children, I did not grow up with a pink, sparkly Barbie dollhouse sitting in the corner of my bedroom. My parents don’t believe in the commercialized, highly sexualized world of Mattel. As a result, I grew up on Little House on the Prairie (the books, not the TV series), stick “horses”, and crazy skits enacted in the garage.

Though I didn’t play with Barbies, one of my favorite childhood toys was a doll. Her name was Kirsten, and she was a Swedish-American pioneer doll by the American Girl company. I liked her for many reasons, not least of which was that she and her friends were neither helpless princesses waiting on “Prince Ken” to rescue them, nor perfect women with everything under control. Though I didn’t know it at the time, this way of being female was reinforced by my parents throughout my childhood.

While I admired Kirsten for her humanity and independence, I also did my share of “playing princess”. Through my involvement with ballet I learned such stories as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet by heart. When I grew older, I liked to lose myself in a good fantasy, like C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia or J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. These stories helped teach me about honor, beauty, love, friendship, forgiveness, sacrifice, good and evil.

Yet the female characters I encountered in them were often either boringly passive or overly aggressive. As a result, I often “read beyond” the stories, imagining new adventures for them and sometimes writing these out as “fanfics”. By the time I was in my late highschool years this led me to notice a lack of balanced female role models not only in books and movies but in the real world as well.

This absence of balance troubled me. Where, I sometimes wondered, were the female role models who were neither “princesses” nor “bra-burning feminists”? Was it possible to be a combination of the two? If not, I was in trouble.

Then I remembered Kirsten’s non-fiction counterparts. Since I was young, I had learned about women who did not allow their culture to keep them from doing what they were meant to do—women like Mary Magdalene, Jeanne D'Ark, Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks, and Ali Hewson. These women are often ignored in the glitz of “Barbieism” or the fire of “feminism”, but they are the role models girls need: beautiful, yet flawed; caring, yet strong.

So how do we raise children to emulate them? The way my parents raised me is an unusual, but effective one. To do so, we must teach girls by our examples that they don’t have to fit society’s ideas of what women should be. We must encourage them to play both princess and pilot, mathematician and mother. Most importantly, we must help them find their identity in more than their gender.

~

Works Cited

Alberti, John. Text Messaging: Reading and Writing About Popular Culture.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 2009. Print.

Rosa Parks photograph, from e-portals.org.

The Same People

"The same people who marched for Civil Rights in the United States, are the same people who protested Apartheid in South Africa, who are the same people who work for peace in Ireland, and are the same people who fought against Debt Slavery in the Jubilee Year 2000, who are the same beautiful people that I see when I look around this place tonight in three hundred and sixty degrees.

We are those people. We are the same person, because our voices were heard. Millions more of our brothers and sisters are alive, thanks to the miracle of AIDS drugs and Malaria drugs... They will be doctors, they will be nurses, they will be scientists, who will live to solve great problems.

Yes, there are many obstacles. Of course, there are always roadblocks in the way of justice. But God will put a wind at our back and a rising road ahead, if we work with each other as one! One!"
—Desmond Tutu, message for U2's 360º Tour concerts, 2009

~
Photograph, from webpages.scu.edu.

The Official Raleigh Trip Story Part 2 [SPOILERS]

WARNING! Spoilers

These are the best clips I've found so far from the concert...

The Unforgettable Fire


City of Blinding Lights


With or Without You

The Official Raleigh Trip Story Part 1

WARNING! Possible Spoilers (but not huge ones)
(click photos for full size)

My dad, brother (Pip) and I left from our house in Ohio around 4:30pm on Friday afternoon. We drove all the way down to Greensboro, NC, where my dad had an old college friend who was willing to put us up for two nights. Going through the mountains was really neat, as I hadn't seen them since I was seven or so. It was 12:00pm when we got to my dad's friend's house, and 1:00am before we got in bed, so we were all pretty exhausted.

The next morning, I and my brother were up by 7:00am. My dad and our hosts were moving slower so we didn't get to Raleigh until somewhere around 11:00am. I was worried that we'd wind up at the very end of the GA line, but some of the fans organized a number system and I and my brother were only the 313th and 314th people there.


The GA line. Photo by me.


Outside the stadium. Photo by me.

We spent the day trying to stay in the shade and making friends with the people around us in line. On a hill by the stadium it was possible to see the stage, so Pip and I took turns watching the soundcheck. Then, sometime around 3:00-3:30, Pip happened to spot one of the U2 crew members. The crew member had come out to look for a friend of his, but he stopped to talk to us and some other people. As he did so, he happened to mention that the band would be coming in through the stadium's tunnel. He also said we could go around to watch them arriving.

Of course, that was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so I, my brother and some of our new-found friends headed around the stadium. We camped out before the tunnel entrance and waited. After a while, the crew member we'd seen before came past on a golf cart. He told us that the band had already arrived, but we all laughed and he admitted he was joking. :P Some time after he left, the first black SUV rolled swiftly into sight.


My brother and some new friends of ours waiting for the motorcade. Photo by me.


Security. Photo by me.


One woman had MacPhisto horns. :D Photo by me.


Bono in his SUV. Photo by me.

Bono was in the first SUV and he had the window down. As he passed by, he made a gesture that some of us watching took to mean he would come back out to see us. On that hope, my brother and I stayed around and, to our joy, Bono did come back out. I doubt I have to describe the squealing from the girls around me, or the yelling from the guys. :D

As Bono made his way down the line, I rehearsed what I was going to say to him in my mind. I hadn't brought anything for him to autograph, because I'd always felt that just meeting him would be more than enough. However, I wanted to tell Bono what he and the band mean to me and I didn't want to mess it up.

While I wasn't squealing like those around me, I was shaking all over, I was so nervous. I had to keep looking down the row at him to make sure I wasn't watching another youtube clip of fans meeting Bono. When he got to the person next to me, I started to wonder if he'd notice someone without anything for him to autograph. There were a lot of fans and most of them were being rowdier than I was, so I thought I might easily be overlooked.


Bono signing for the person next to me. Photo by my brother.

Then he stopped right in front of me.

The first thing I felt was an aura of calm. Bono wasn't ruffled a bit by all the people screaming and asking for autographs around him. He was just completely in the moment and, I felt, completely focused on me.

As I looked at him, he reached out with his right hand and I felt my own hand reach out to his. We held hands for a moment, not shaking them, just touching. I would tell you more details, but I was too overwhelmed to even notice.


Face to face; hand to hand. Photos by my brother.

"You've changed the shape of my world—you and the band," I said, alluding to the way he likes to describe Lennon's music, "So thank you."

I think Bono caught the reference, because his eyes seemed to show pleased recognition.

And then he did something I'd never expected.

"Thank you," he said.

I don't care what anybody wants to say about his ego, Bono was thanking me for thanking him. That's humility.

"What's your name?" Bono asked me.

"Andrea," I said.

"I like it," he replied.

Then he took out a pen, and signed my ONE shirt on the left shoulder. He had a bit of trouble, as the fabric wanted to bunch up, so I held it flat as he wrote. When he was finished, Bono smiled at me and went on to the next person in line.


Signing my ONE shirt. Photos by my brother.


Bono talking to fans. Photos by me.

The concert that followed was amazing, but I don't have time to write about it.

Quiz of Randomness

from Margaret W. at It's a Fine Life

1. Who's your favorite actor?
Can't choose...
Liam Neeson
Viggo Mortensen
Sean Bean
Ewan McGregor
Adrian Paul
Orlando Bloom

2. Who's your favorite actress?
See above... :P
Renée Zellweger
Liv Tyler
Assumpta Serna
Nicole Kidman
Alexandra Vandernoot
Julia Ormond

3. What's your favorite store?
I like used bookstores, music stores, and clothes stores, especially if they aren’t too expensive. I’m also a big fan of EDUN clothes.

4. What's the last book you have held?
It was probably a school book. *sigh*

5. Are you a "holic" of anything?
Art—music, movies, etc.

6. What percent of the time are you happy?
Truly happy? Not enough.

7. Have you come to any conclusions lately?
I have to get more organized with my time.

8. Name something that makes you feel good.
witnessing true love

9. Are you a Beatles fan?
sort of

10. If you are a Beatles fan, who is your favorite?
I find John interesting.

11. What is the funniest movie you've seen lately?
I haven’t seen a movie in so long... I did laugh out loud at part of a Highlander episode, today, though.

12. Without thinking, name three things you hate:
evil, homework, poverty

13. Do you consider this question unlucky?
um, no

14. Anything tough in your life right now?
plenty

15. What do you think of this quiz?
it’s a little odd...


Feel free to do this if you like. :)

Finally...

I have TICKETS!!!!!



Raleigh, NC, October 3, here I (and my brother, Pip) come! :D

...

[/squee] :P

~
Photograph of U2 during a 360º Tour show, from monicalea, of atu2.com.

Washing At Dark, by Rich Mullins

article for Release Magazine, Summer 1992

Someday I shall be a great saint - like those you see in the windows of magnificent cathedrals. I will have a soul made of sunlight and skin as clear as the stained glass panels that make their skin, and I will shine like they do now - I will shine with the glory that comes over those who rise up early and seek the Lord....

But I do not shine so now - especially not in the morning. In fact, I grimace until noon, I would never be mistaken for a stained glass saint, though at 7 AM I might be grey and grotesque as a gargoyle. By faith I accept that "God's commands are not burdensome," but right now, I am not grown in that measure of grace that frees me to exalt in this particular command to seek Him "early in the morning."

Right now it is dusk and far in the east the sky is already being inked with the shadow that our earth makes of itself and some nearer stars are waking there. I am in a park in Indianapolis, Indiana and right now these great trees are casting no shadows; the greens of their leaves are holding the last rays of sun already set and the sky in the west is bright and turquoise and it shines like a semi-precious stone - as if any stone could be "semi-precious". And over all that I can see, over my motorcycle and the trunks and limbs of these hardwood giants, over this close cut lawn and the now abandoned tennis courts and baseball diamonds, over the sky (still fading, still and newly exquisite) and over me, a great peace washes. It comes up from the ground and down from the heavens - a deep peace breathed out by a universe that surrounds itself again to the embrace of its Creator - its God, who is to be sought by His saints in the hours of early mornings but condescends to seek out even sinners at dusk and washes them at evening in the peace of His presence and throws round their shoulders the cloak of His acceptance and puts on their fingers the ring of His pleasure - the pleasure He takes in them when He meets them here on the road even before they could get home, when He echoes in the evening the hymn He sang for them at dawn.

Someday I will rise up like the sun in the morning - someday I will shine like the saints who watch from cathedral windows. I know this, not because of any evidence I have produced of myself, but because of the witness of His scriptures, because of the evidence of His grace, and because of the testimony of this sky that washes over me at dusk.

~
Article from kidbrothers.net.
Photograph of sunburst, by myself.

Quotes for Thought—Work

“"Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. He says, `I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.' So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red. "Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD.”
—The Bible: Jeremiah 22:13–16


“If you do God’s work, God maybe does yours.”
—Bono, lead singer of rock band U2, 50 Minutes U2 interview


“We've been trying to work out how to get all the Achtung Baby sounds live. Basically we can do it if Edge plays something different with every one of his appendages.”
—Bono, lead singer of rock band U2


“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.”
—Emile Zola


“He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and head and heart is an artist.”
—St. Francis of Assisi


“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; there is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”
—Henry David Thoreau


“To the early riser come the seven advantages!” he sang out one chilly October premorning, throwing open their night shutters.

Kinshi was heard to mutter from under his pillow, “Seven advantages: work, work, work, work, work, work, and work.”
—The Master Puppeteer, novel by Katherine Paterson


“Your work is a very sacred matter.”
—Martin Luther


“Take your work seriously, but never yourself.”
—Dame Margot Fonteyn, ballerina


“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
—Thomas Edison


“The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary.”
—unknown


“Let the excellence of your work be your protest.”
—Dr. William Lane (Michael Card's mentor)

~
Photograph of NY worker, from solarnavigator.net.

Top 10 Things I Learned During My First Week at University...

In the spirit of Letterman...

01. College is really, really hard (don't laugh!).
02. I can get sick of reading... and writing.
03. Forcing myself to be more extroverted is stressful.
04. So is trying to make each class on time when I'm not entirely sure where each class is.
05. I'm not as in shape as I hoped I was. However, walking and biking so much is improving that issue.
06. There are obnoxious college students here but they're pretty rare.
07. Likewise, most of the professors are great.
08. Not having a laptop because it's being updated is not fun—especially when I need to read things online or recharge my iPod so I have music while on campus.
09. I can forget my (20th!) birthday until the afternoon before it.
10. I can never, ever, ever forget God.

Top 10 Most Played, Monday 8/24/09

It's Monday again! Time for me to post the 10 songs I listened to most from the week before along with notes about some of them. You can reply by commenting on my listening choices or by listing your own 10 most-played songs. Hopefully, we will discover new music and start some interesting discussions through this. :)

[Song/Artist/Composer/Album or Source]

01. Dream Again—Franz Ferdinand—Tonight
[A new group, to me, introduced through a U2 interview, as often happens. I was able to check a whole album of theirs out from our local library (yay for a new library card!) and found I liked about half of it. I and some other family members think this song sounds a bit like The Beatles—which means my brother, Pip, rolls his eyes and puts up with it. :P]

02. Another Time, Another Place—U2—Boy

03. I'm Not Ashamed—Newsboys—Shine: The Hits
[IMO, this song speaks powerfully about what the Church needs today. Some favourite lyrics: This one says it's a lost cause/Save your testimonies for churchtime/Other ones state you'd better wait/Until you do a little market research/I'm saying "No way. No way."/I'm not ashamed to let you know/I want this light in me to show/I'm not ashamed to speak the name of Jesus Christ...]

04. Shattered—O.A.R.—All Sides

05. The End of August—Yanni—The Very Best of Yanni
[A perfect song for this time of year—or any time, really. :)]

06. Clocks (Royksopp Trembling Hearts Remix)—Coldplay
[It took me a while, but this techno sounding remix has gradually "grown on me". I think I still like the original version better, though.]

07. Filii Neidhardi—Corvus Corax—Viator
[I came across this song whilst watching a belly dancing video on youtube. Now, before you jump to any conclusions, it was a video focusing on hands not hips. ;) I'm a great fan of the way Indian classical dancers use their hands and arms, and bellydance is a form that grew out of that background. Ergo, I've been watching videos of bellydancing arm and hand technique in my spare time. Anyhoo... This song caught my attention with its powerful combination of bagpipes and drums. It's pretty neat. :)]

08. Symmetry—The Blue Cliff Ensemble—Feng Shui

09. Mysterious Ways (Live)—U2—Vertigo 2005 // Live from Chicago

10. The Color Green (Gloria In Excelsis)—Rich Mullins—A Liturgy, a Legacy & a Ragamuffin Band
[This song is a favourite—not just because green is my favourite colour! :P Some lyrics: And the moon is a sliver of silver/Like a shaving that fell on the floor of a Carpenter's shop/And every house must have it's builder/And I awoke in the house of God/Where the windows are mornings and evenings/Stretched from the sun/Across the sky north to south/And on my way to early meeting/I heard the rocks crying out/I heard the rocks crying out... Such a beautiful picture of God's glorious creation!]

~
Musical notes image, from familyofgodduluth.org.

Smack In the Middle of a Contradiction

Ohio. So far, this is a land of football (not, unfortunately, the European type), rain, heat, humidity, underfunded libraries, good music, and people, people everywhere. But I’m getting ahead of myself...

Our move on the last weekend of July was stressful work. Thankfully, the moving crew really knew their job and completed it in plenty of time on Friday. We, on the other hand, were up all Thursday night packing. It was a long night. I would get a box finished, almost fall asleep sitting up, then someone would wake me, I’d drink a glass of water, eat a couple grapes, and try to keep packing. Repeat ad nauseum.

Not surprisingly, tempers were near the breaking point by Saturday and I, in my sleep-deprived state, was definitely not helping things. Finally, I “ran away from home” and took some time to cool down while watching the clouds go sailing over the airport and listening to U2 on my iPod. That time later became a poem (End of July), but most importantly, I felt a lot better afterwards.

We stayed at a hotel in town Saturday night, because all our things were in the moving truck. That was mostly uneventful—except for the fact that my brother, Pip, is great about security. He, being cautious, locked and dead-bolted the boys’ hotel room door behind my father, who went out that night to take care of some last-minute paper work. When my dad got back to the hotel at somewhere around 1AM, he was locked out and the boys sleep like the dead. It took about five minutes of phone calling their room from the front desk before Dad could get in! :P

On Sunday, we went to church for the last time at our congregation. A friend of our family was there, which was an unexpected surprise, as we hadn’t thought we’d be able to say goodbye to her. She’s about to head off to Afghanistan to teach.

When the farewells were over, we returned to the hotel to gather our things; then hit the road for Ohio. The drive was rather boring. I like to have “road music” on long trips, but no one else in the car was up for it. Besides that, I didn’t have anything to read and the scenery was pretty familiar. Our few stops for food were highlights of the trip.

We spent Sunday night in a hotel a short way from our new city. The Football Hall of Fame was having their big enshrinement celebrations, so there were lights and noise surrounding us. However, our hotel rooms were pretty quiet and I got more sleep than I’d expected.

Next morning, Mom and Dad set off for the house to decide where they wanted things to go and supervise the movers. Pip and I took the younger two down to breakfast and tidied up. Then the parents returned and we all went over to the new house.

I’d known it would be smaller than our old home, but the shock of actually seeing it in person for the first time was too much. It’s shaming to admit, but my response was to be a whinging teenager the whole day we moved in. I knew I shouldn’t complain because I’m far better off than most people in the world, but that afternoon, I wasn’t thinking about people living in cardboard boxes on less than $1 a day. I was thinking about sharing a room with my sister, which meant a loss of almost all my accustomed privacy. That, more than the loss of space, was very hard to accept.

The first couple weeks of living in our new house reminded me of Cinderella’s ambitious stepsisters cutting their toes and heels off so they could squeeze their feet into the glass slipper. Everything was too close, too high, too low, too damp, too warm. It was akin to camping indoors. Boxes were (and still are) everywhere. Worse still, for me, people were everywhere.

Some days, I couldn’t take it any longer, so I began hoping on my bike and setting off alone through the city. God’s hand of protection was definitely on me, because I got lost once and I found a mission where a woman kindly directed me home. After that, I started being more reasonable about my bike rides. I also started reading my Bible more regularly and found comfort in several Psalms.

Just about the time I felt I’d begun to adjust to living here, it was time to get ready for college. I took three days to “study” for the ACT and took it on Monday the 17th. The test room was empty of anyone but myself, so it was wonderfully quiet and I could even whisper a few things out loud to decide whether they sounded right. I was rather nervous, because there was more math in the science section than there’d been in the GED, but I felt that the English and Reading sections went well.

That afternoon, I finally got the results from my GED back... Not only had I passed, I passed with honours. It was a complete shock. I’m still struggling to understand it. The one thing that makes sense is that I was strong enough on Reading/Essay, Social Studies, and Science, that it made up for my low math score.

The next day (Tuesday), I had a meeting with my admissions counselor. He gave me the results of my ACT... I’d passed it with honours as well! Apparently, the same thing happened with it that happened on my GED—my reading skills outweighed my lack of math skills.

Once the short meeting was over, I and my parents went on a tour of campus. It was mildly interesting but pretty artificial. I’ll truly know the place only once I’m a student there.

Since that meeting, I’ve spent my time working out which classes I’m taking during the first semester. Today, I have a meeting with the woman in charge of the university’s honours program, to discuss it with her. I’m still not certain whether I should take part in it or not, so hopefully this will help me decide. That will have to happen quickly as I have orientation this week and classes begin on the 31st.

Everything feels like it’s moving at the speed of light, right now. Part of me is ready to “face the footlights” and enter the world of university. The other part of me wants to cover my eyes like a scared kid and run in the opposite direction.

I think that if I knew where I’m going this would all be much easier. People like Bono who knew from young adulthood that they would be doing what they’re still doing seem to have it so easy. But then, I’m not them, so I can’t say for sure.

All I know is that I’m caught in a contradiction as usual. I’m a child and an adult, an idealist and a pragmatist, a dreamer and a doer, drawn by the world of great art and afraid of what it could do to me, certain of what I want and completely unsure of how to get there. The land of in-between can be very frustrating, but I suppose I’d rather have it than nothing at all.

“How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.”—Barry Lopez

Current mood: Nervous.
Current musica: Another Time, Another Place, by U2

Top 10 Most Played, Monday 8/17/09

It's Monday again! Time for me to post the 10 songs I listened to most from the week before along with notes about some of them. You can reply by commenting on my listening choices or by listing your own 10 most-played songs. Hopefully, we will discover new music and start some interesting discussions through this. :)

[Song/Artist/Composer/Album or Source]

01. In Rodanthe—Emmylou Harris—Nights In Rodanthe soundtrack
[A new discovery. I've no idea what the movie's like, but I really, really like this song. It has such a soaring quality that it puts me in mind of Annie Lennox's Into the West or Enya's May It Be, though it has a different feel. Some favourite lyrics: In the hours when the sky was wild and weeping/You broke me from the secret I'd been keeping/Before you there was no love and no believing/I was only grieving/Until Rodanthe/Where the seagulls go soaring in the sun/High above the rugged ponies as they run/And you pull me like the moon pulls on the tide/To your side...]

02. Audience of One—Rise Against—Appeal to Reason
[Another new discovery. The music video for this song seems to suggest it is political in theme, but I'd have never guessed that from the lyrics. To me, it has a broader applicability. Favourite lines: We ran like vampires from a thousand burning suns/But even then we should have stayed/But we ran away/Now all my friends are gone/Maybe we've outgrown all the things we once loved/Runaway/But what are we running from?...]

03. Song for the Boys—Pat Metheny—One Quiet Night
[I once danced a modern dance to this piece. It's been a favourite ever since, and brings back fond memories of one of my favourite teachers. :)]

04. Another Time, Another Place—U2—Boy
[Recently, this song has become one I connect deeply with. It provokes a C. S. Lewis-ian sense of "sehnsucht".]

05. Black Light—Nicole C. Mullen—Talk About It
[Nicole is one of the few female vocalists in mainstream Christian music that I actually like. The reason? She really sings. She also likes to gently "poke" people toward taking a stand for what's right and this song is no exception. :)]

06. That Where I Am, There You May Also Be—Rich Mullins—Rich Mullins: His Life and Legacy: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven

07. These Thousand Hills—Third Day—Offerings

08. Light of Heaven—Fernando Ortega—Storm
[An old favourite. One of the reasons I really like this song is that Fernando manages to convey a view of life that is not entirely despairing, yet not rose-tinted, either. His perspective is real. Kind of like that of a certain Irish band I love. ;)]

09. Back 2 Good (Live)—Matchbox Twenty

10. When Love Comes to Town (Live)—U2—ZooTV Tour


~
Musical notes image, from familyofgodduluth.org.