The Party Pig: a story to break the scarcity mindset

 

When I was a child, I did not have as many books as many of my peers.  Perhaps that is what makes each one of them memorable.  My sister and I shared a set of four "Golden Books," which were each written in Dutch.  Their English titles were "The Taxi that Hurried," "The Saggy Baggy Elephant," "The Poky Little Puppy," and "The Party Pig."  We heard and eventually read these books over and over as any child enjoys hearing a favorite story again.
   It was only recently that I discovered the English title for "The Party Pig."  In Dutch, the title "Het Feestvarken" matches an idiom used in the Netherlands for anyone who is celebrating a birthday, quite apart from any reference to the story.
   In "The Party Pig," a young pig is left at home while his mother gets some last minute supplies for his birthday party to take place later that day.  When a series of hungry animals come to the door asking for something to eat, the party pig gives away cheese, lettuce, milk and more, not thinking about himself at all.  As he says farewell, he invites them to come back for his party that evening.
   When the pig's mother returns, she is dismayed that the cupboards are bare.  She cannot imagine how any kind of birthday party can take place under these conditions.
   However, at party time the same procession of animals comes with practical gifts.  Each of them has made some of the raw ingredients given by the party pig into something new to be shared once again.  Instead of the party being ruined, the party pig's generosity brings joy to each of the characters, not least the party pig himself.
   The scarcity mindset of the pig's mother afflicts us all at times.  We hesitate to invite someone over because we think our dwelling or our limited selection of foods might not be enough for a guest.  We want to make sure we have enough for ourselves before we give to charity.  We approach things from an economics point of view and see limitations rather than abundance.
   First published in 1954, this Little Golden Book is coming back into print in May 2019 to celebrate the 100th birthday of its illustrator, Richard Scarry.  It's a title worth sharing with the children in your life, because a child's inclination to help others needs to be nurtured rather than dampened by stories and experiences with adults who care about them.

A Parade of Anti-Heroes

   Sometimes as a teacher, a great idea does not turn out so great.  My great idea was that the first three students who handed an assignment in early, that was due on February 28th, could assign me to read a book of their choice.  The three books my students gave me to read were, in this order,
1) Diary of a Wimpy Kid-the Getaway by Jeff Kinney
2) Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
3) The Brilliant World of Tom Gates by Liz Pichon
While this challenge did motivate some students to complete their work early, I did not particularly enjoy reading these books.
   My young adult children would tell you that my experience with these children's books is a bit unusual.  Typically, I really enjoy books written for middle school and high school readers.  Books that have won or are nominated for the Newbery Medal are among my favorites. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, intended for children, have a depth to them that led me to read them over again several times as an adult.
   I was reflecting on some commonalities in the three books listed above and what exactly made them distasteful to me.  The main character in each book is a boy I would best describe as an anti-hero.  He's not a villain, but he prides himself in lacking basic social skills.  He is a misfit, but he construes his place in society as everyone else's fault.
   Anti-heroes Greg Heffley and Tom Gates appear in journal-like books with plenty of stick figure illustrations and a font that mimics a kid's legible printing.  Both of them despise their siblings, parents, and teachers. Tom Gates takes the family mockery to another level by calling his grandparents "the Fossils" and finding them useful only for giving him candy or money at his convenience.
   In contrast, Alcatraz Smedry is a fantasy character in a chapter book without illustrations.  Alcatraz has been raised by a series of foster parents, but on his thirteenth birthday he gets a glimpse of his true identity as a Smedry, one of a line of people with special talents.  The types of talents the Smedrys have include breaking things, being late for things, tripping, and falling to the ground.  Alcatraz is the narrator, and he constantly reminds the reader that he is not a hero, not brave and not a very good person. Most of the book has him and a cast of relatives all named after famous prisons fighting and using assorted weaponry to recapture a bag of sand they fear will be turned into a set of lenses that will give the Evil Librarians the upper hand in a culture war.
   In fairness, Alcatraz grows as a person and becomes more capable of caring for others by the end of the book.  However, Greg and Tom experience no growth in character in their stories.  Instead, they become better at manipulating others and escape any consequences of their misdeeds.
   Now, other adults who would happen to pick up these three titles and read them back-to-back might have a much different reaction to them than I do.  Perhaps I am taking them too seriously when they are meant to be funny, the same way "Dennis the Menace" and Calvin from "Calvin and Hobbes" are supposed to be entertaining.  What I think disturbs me the most about this parade of anti-heroes is that I occasionally see real children behaving just like them, disrespecting themselves and others, reveling in passivity, and having disgraceful goals like publicly insulting someone they dislike.

RROP: Reducing Reliance on Plastic

Over the past year I have taken some steps to reduce my plastic consumption.  For each of these items, I had not previously realize the cumulative effect of using plastic in this way or about alternatives.  Perhaps one of these will be new to you as well.

Toothbrush

   Dentists recommend you change your toothbrush every three months.  That means each year I would personally send four chunks of plastic to the landfill that will never decompose.  In my lifetime so far, I have probably "consumed" 200 toothbrushes, plus those I have purchased for my husband and children.  Some toothbrushes do linger in my home as cleaning aids for hard to reach places!

   I discovered last year that there are toothbrushes with bristles made of plant products and a handle made of bamboo.  Even though they are sturdy, they will eventually decompose or safely be burned.  Yes, they cost more.  No, they don't come in flashy colours.  But they have given me the courage to say, "No, thank you" when the dentist offered me a complimentary toothbrush at my last visit.  I still need an alternative to dental floss...[1]

Straw

   I don't use straws often at home and haven't purchased a box of them in years.  When we go out for a meal, the server is likely to add a straw to a soft drink or chocolate milk.  That has changed in some establishments lately, and it alerted me to the problem of plastic drinking straws and the litter they cause world wide.

   One of the summer dates my husband and I went on last year involved walking to a diner about a kilometre from home and each having a milk shake.  We brought our own reusable straws, which were sturdy plastic and had been part of a teacher gift: a large sturdy plastic cup, lid and straw.  However, since then I have purchased a bamboo straw that will serve me better. A cloth carrying case in the store seemed a bit overpriced, so I'll have to improvise to keep my purse sanitary.

Food wrap

Cotton food wrap

   I've never been a plastic wrap user.  Over the past twenty-one years, I may have bought one small box of it that dispenses from a cardboard tube. I have found other ways to cover food and leftovers, including reusing a bread bag to put around the container and removing air before adding a twist tie or Tupperware® with a sealed lid.

   When I found out about beeswax infused cotton to use as a cover or wrap for leftover food, I purchased a few of them and have been pleased with the results.  They are washable in cold water, so as not to melt off the wax.  After they lose their clinging power (I've had mine over a year and they are still fine), you can cut them into small pieces and put them in the compost/green bin

Shampoo

Partly used shampoo bar on wooden soap dish

   For the past six months, I have completely switched over to washing my hair with a shampoo bar instead of a liquid shampoo.  Even though most shampoo bottles are recyclable and I do recycle any piece of plastic with a recycling symbol on it, I'd rather not add plastic to the environment when there is an alternative.  I first became aware of shampoo bars by receiving one as a gift.

   Today, when we think of soap it is highly specialized.  Dish soap, laundry soap, hand soap and hair soap are not interchangeable, but in the past (and even in many places around the world), soap in the form of a cake or bar was used to wash clothes, hands, hair and floors.  Using a shampoo bar also enables me to support a local producer of soap and care products!

[1] Footnote in 2024. There is a Canadian made product made of corn silk that works just as well as dental floss. The product name is FLOSSPOT Gold. It comes in a reusable and refillable stainless steel dispenser!

Reading Strategies and my books of 2018

   Each of the 85 books I read last year had an effect on me. As I teach my students, "Reading is thinking."  Every book requires of its readers a level of engagement. Being touched by the books we read proves that we have taken them seriously and that we are not just passive recipients of knowledge being poured into our brains.
   There are specific reading strategies that help us to get the most out of the books we read. As I go through each strategy, I will highlight a book or two I read in the past year which especially required this strategy of me.

Visualization

When reading, it is helpful to picture in one's mind the action that is taking place.  As the author

describes people and place, they come to life in our imaginations. Two books I read last year that became vivid in my mind were The Trumpet of the Swan by E B White and Stolen Child Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch. The first book highlights Sam Beaver, a boy who comes to a remote part of Canada and who becomes bound up with a family of swans. The wilderness setting was a bit similar to a green space near my suburban home. When Louis the swan leaves his family to find his voice, the sights and sounds are told in lovely detail. Stolen Child is set at the same time period that my father and his siblings came to Canada as immigrants. Some of the scenes of the country school and the simple and practical home built by new settlers I imagined to take place on and around the property of my dear aunt and uncle who lived on a farm in the Niagara Peninsula.

Prediction

As we read fiction books, we use our own background to try to predict what a character will do next or what events might follow. By making conscious or unconscious predictions, we invest in the story and care more about the outcome. The book from 2018 that I found myself making predictions for was My Secret Sister by Helen Edwards and Jenny Lee Smith. This lengthy biography of two sisters separated early in life and raised in different households had alternating narrators. As narrators switched, I found myself trying to figure out how the story would continue.  So many things in the story were difficult to predict, such as one family moving to South Africa for a period of time, and the surprising revelations about other siblings who had been raised by others and remained unacknowledged by their birth mother.

Connections

Every story we hear or read connects to our lives in some way because there are common experiences in being human.  Stories can also connect to other stories we've heard or to world events we are aware of. The books that led to many connections for me in 2018 were Meet Viola Desmond by Elizabeth MacLeod and The Soul of Shame by Curt Thompson. Both are non-fiction books.  The first one is a picture book that tells the story of African-Canadian, Viola Desmond. In 2018, this woman's image was revealed on the Canadian $10 bill. Learning about her story enabled me to connect it to the story of American civil rights activist, Rosa Parks.  Both women did not give up their seats in order to assert their human rights, and both were punished at the time.  However, in time, they have both come to be admired and exonerated. The book The Soul of Shame provided me with connections because all humans deal with guilt and shame. Hearing the author speak at two different conferences helped me make deeper connections between what he said in his book and my own life experiences.

Questions & Evaluation

As we read, we can ask question in our minds. What is the author's purpose? Do I agree with what this character has chosen to do? What would I do in this person's place? What will I do with what I have learned? Is this story true to life? The book I read in 2018 that led to the most questions was Good to Great by Jim Collins. On the surface this is a business book, but the principles it holds up apply to all kinds of organizations. I found myself asking how I could apply the things I was learning to myself as a leader, to various aspects of the organizations I am part of. I even did a bonus group assignment to explore how school leaders can invite more timely feedback from parents, teachers and the community to address problems early.

Clarifying

Finally, clarifying is a reading strategy that focuses on understanding words and sentences. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde required this of me the most of all the books I read in 2018.  Wilde wrote this work in 1890; its structure and vocabulary reflect a highly educated and literary level. My son studied this novel in a university English class and encouraged me to take it up. As much as I encourage my students to read books that stretch their reading ability and comprehension, I need to practice this myself.

Hidden Figures, Part 3: New Testament

This is the final installment of a short series that responds to the film Hidden Figures (2016).  The New Testament also contains a number of hidden figures, ordinary and even marginalized individuals who turn out to be essential to the moving forward of God's kingdom narrative.

Nativity Story

   Sometimes stories become so familiar that we don't realize that some of the figures in the Nativity story would have been overlooked or considered non-essential if recorded by a historian other than Luke, the evangelist.  As a Gentile and outsider himself, he seems to have an eye for the marginalized, including non-Jews, women, the disabled, and so on.

   So, how are shepherds "hidden figures" in this sense?  While we might imagine shepherds to be the gentle caretakers of cute and fluffy sheep, the society in which they lived did not consider shepherding a noble profession, despite the beloved Psalm 23 that compared God to a shepherd.  The time spent outdoors and isolated from town life led to perceptions that sheep-tenders stretched the truth and couldn't be trusted.  In fact, they were not permitted to testify in court even if they were eye-witnesses of a crime.
   It is striking that God decided to send a troop of angels to shepherds outside at night. They were chosen as the first visitors, the first witnesses of an event that changed the course of history.  The angels identified the child as "the Saviour, Christ the Lord," and the shepherds did not find ways to rationalize this message away.  Instead, they got up and followed the directions they were given! 
   After they had gone to worship the baby, they told everyone they met about this good news.  No doubt, many listeners shook their heads and dismissed the story as nothing more than a tall tale from no-good shepherds.  But anyone whose heart was prepared may have looked past the grubby messengers and received the news with wonder and hope.

Minors

   There are two distinct times when individual children in the New Testament are mentioned for their deeds.  The first, whose name is not given, plays an important role in a miracle that is told in each of the four gospels.  It is John, the Evangelist, who provides the detail of where the 5 loaves and 2 fish came from in the feeding of the 5000.  It was a particular boy who made his bread-and-fish lunch available to Jesus, providing the raw materials for a multitude to be fed.

   The second young man is Paul's nephew.  In Acts 23:16 and following, this nephew overhears a plot against the Apostle Paul so that he can be ambushed and killed before he can receive a proper Roman hearing.  Being in the right place at the right time, Paul's nephew is discreet and goes to the proper authority to tell what he knows.  In acting quickly and with wisdom, he played a part in preserving Paul's life and testimony until God's plan was fulfilled.

Patronesses

   Three short verses at the start of Luke 8 tell us something not commonly known among Christians.  The hidden figures in this case are wealthy women who provided for the needs of Jesus and his disciples over the course of their ministry.  During these years, ministry work was intense and could not be combined with making a living in the traditional way.  Mary Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Cuza, Susanna, and "many others" accompanied the group of followers.  Jesus did not use miracles to provide for himself, as Satan had earlier tempted him to do in the wilderness.  However, these hidden figures did what they could behind the scenes, using their own means to make sure Jesus and his followers did not go hungry. In other places, Mary, Martha and Lazarus and Simon the Leper are named as providing hospitality when Jesus and his entourage are visiting the Jerusalem area [1].

Easter 

   The first ones at the tomb on Easter morning were hidden figures too, women distraught at the death of their Lord and eager to do what they could to respect and anoint his body with aloes and spices.  All four gospels confirm that they were the first to see that the grave was empty, although it took some time for all the believers to sort out exactly what this meant.  When they came with reports of the empty tomb, the first reaction of the disciples was disbelief, partly because the message was beyond what they considered possible and partly because women were not considered reliable.

   Again, we see that God exalts those that society has considered unworthy.  Women as the first witnesses of the resurrection would have been completely ludicrous in that culture if someone were fabricating a tale to convince the Jews that Jesus rose from the dead.  That all the gospels have women arriving at the tomb first and being vindicated that they had indeed seen angels gives compelling evidence of the truth of the narrative.

Conclusion

   As I have pondered the concept of "hidden figures" the past several months in relation to the Bible, I can see that one of Scripture's overarching themes is that the humble will be exalted and that the lofty will be shown their proper place.  One day before Christmas, the song of Mary is a fitting place to summarize:

   He [the Lord] has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.  He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers. [2]

[1] See John 12, Matthew 26 and Mark 14. 

[2] Luke 1: 51-55, NIV.

   

Hidden Figures, Part 2: Old Testament

   The 2016 film Hidden Figures follows in the footsteps of The Help (2011) and The Butler (2013) in telling the stories of people that were not considered worthy of telling in the 1960's because of deep and systemic prejudice.  These movies resonate with "ordinary people" and show that human dignity and ability are not restricted to those in the limelight.
   As more stories surface about instrumental but overlooked individuals, I asked myself if there are stories of foreigners, women, children or servants in the pages of the Bible.  Indeed, they are there, but it is sometimes our summary retellings of these stories leave them out.  Let's take a closer look at some Old Testament characters that God includes in his story.

In the story of Abraham: Eliezer of Damascus

   Abraham is a wealthy man of the Middle East who was called by God to be an exemplar of faith and whose faith would pass on from generation to generation among a tribal group known as the Hebrews or later as the people of Israel.  Our summaries of Abraham's life tell of his remarkable journey without a clear roadmap, the promises made to him, the miraculous way he became a father at the age of 99, and his obedience in offering Isaac on an altar at God's command.  After these events, we would add that Abraham got a wife for Isaac so that the line would continue.

   The Scriptures, however, devote a full chapter to the agent God used to secure a wife for his son.  Although he isn't named in Genesis 24, he appears to be the same "chief servant" Abraham mentions nine chapters earlier as Eliezer of Damascus as the one who would inherit all Abraham's wealth if no child were to be born of his body.
   Eliezer's task was daunting: he was to take a significant journey, find Abraham's relatives and find a suitable bride for his master's son.  The weight of the transaction was not lost on Eliezer, and he himself becomes an exemplar of faith.  His bold prayer seeking God's guidance in finding the right woman for Isaac is moving and full of wisdom.  He asks for a sign that will point out the right young woman.  One who would offer him hospitality at her family home and offer care for a stranger's camels was someone with a heart of kindness and patience.  Each camel can drink 200 litres in a short time, but drawing water from a well a bucket at a time would have been time consuming!

   When Eliezer returns with Rebekah, it is clear that his mission has been successful.  Isaac takes her as his wife, and the promise moves forward.  It does so through the faithfulness of a servant. 

In the story of Moses: Miriam

   One could say that Moses was a hidden figure that God brought out of obscurity to lead his people, but my focus here is on his older sister Miriam.  When Moses was an infant, she stood by to watch as his mother desperately floated him on the Nile River in a papyrus basket, hoping to keep him alive despite the Pharaoh's edict that all male children be drowned.  One might say, "What was the use of watching the basket?"  The likelihood of the baby surviving crocodiles or hippos was remote.  Even if the basket was untouched by beasts, how long could a baby survive without human care?
   But Miriam's task was indispensable as the story unfolds.  When Pharaoh's daughter sees the basket, she recognizes a Hebrew baby within it.  Instead of hostility, however, she has pity.  Instead of observing the rules of the Egyptians, she follows a higher norm that considers the arrival of the basket as a gift of the Nile god, one which she will not refuse.  Miriam's quick thinking and shrewd negotiation with Pharaoh's daughter has the result of Moses being nursed by his own mother and for payment.  Thus, Moses in his most formative years is taught the ways of the God of Israel before he enters the palace and its treasures of learning because his sister Miram was on hand.

In the story of Joshua: Rahab

   Conquering the Promised Land fell to the leadership of Joshua, after Moses passed away.  On the other side of the Jordan River, fortified cities and well-equipped armies are not about to surrender to a band that had been wandering in the wilderness for about 40 years.  Joshua sends out scouts to learn more about the people of Jericho, the nearest settlement.  Somehow these two found an inkeeper named Rahab.  In that culture, an innkeeper doubled as a prostitute.  The Israelite men may have shocked Rahab in that they were seeking only information, whereas the "pagan" Rahab certainly shocked the men by knowing so much about the LORD and by her reverence for Him.  She hides them when local intelligence determines that foreigners have entered the city, and she boldly requests  a promise of rescue when God will grant them victory over her people. (See Joshua 2.)

   A hidden figure of ill repute and her entire household are all that is spared of the city of Jericho.  They become part of the Israelite people; Rahab herself is married by Nashon, who may well have been one of the unnamed spies.  Rahab remains unhidden in the New Testament, where she is mentioned three times: once in the family tree of  Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus of Nazareth, once in the Hebrews 11 list of faith heroes and once in the book of James.

In the story of David: an Egyptian slave 

   Before he ascends the throne, a "hidden figure" plays an important role in the life of David, a one-time shepherd and youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem.  Perhaps because of his own humble beginnings, David does not scorn a man found half-dead as he pursues a band of raiders who have burned his city and taken all that was dear to him and his men--their wives and children.  There is reason to pause and dish out scarce supplies for this foreigner in order to hear his story.  Great dignity is given to the helpless man in this account: he is an Egyptian slave of ruthless Amalekites, who left him behind when he became ill (1 Samuel 30).  He is willing to guide David and his followers to the camp; his only plea is that they do not kill him or hand him back to his masters.  David's reputation of integrity to this point assures the readers that the silence on this point means that David did indeed keep his word to the slave and did him no harm. Due to the help of this slave, David recovers everything and everyone that had been taken.

In the story of Naaman: a servant girl and other servants

   Naaman is a foreigner to the people of Israel, an army general for ancient Syria.  Despite his status in worldly terms, we would hardly expect to find his story in the pages of the Bible.  Syria and Israel were military rivals, but Naaman does not receive mention because his tactics were a threat to the people of God.  Instead, he comes to Israel because he seeks healing from leprosy.  Now, Naaman would never have come up with this plan on his own.  Leprosy was by definition incurable at the time; it was a death sentence.  However, an Israelite girl who had been taken captive by the Syrian army and who worked as a domestic servant for Naaman's wife suggests that he see the prophet Elisha in the land of her birth.  Despite Naaman's prestige, he listens to the advice of a hidden figure.

   As the story unfolds we see that Naaman still would not have received healing from leprosy if left to his own devices.  The instructions of Elisha, given by a messenger, seem undignified to Naaman so that he is ready to refuse and return to Damascus in the same diseased and hopeless condition.  It is his servants who convince him to see reason and overcome his pride.  And thus Naaman dips seven times in the Jordan River and catches a glimpse of the glory of Yahweh, the God of his enemies.

These examples are just a few of the "hidden figures" that God does not overlook in the story of redemption.  Feel free to leave a comment about any other Old Testament characters that fit this category.

   

Hidden Figures Part 1: A film connecting to a Bigger Story

   The successful book and film Hidden Figures tells the true story of women who were instrumental in the American space program in 1962 and onward.  This film came out in 2016, but it continues to generate income and capture hearts because its message connects to a bigger story in our culture, including Black Lives Matter and #MeToo.  The discrimination faced by Dorothy Vaghan, Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson based on gender and race is tackled head-on.  Alan Shepherd and John Glenn are household names, but without a vast team of support staff at NASA there would be no rocket, no launch and no successful re-entry.  The three women documented in the film give us another angle to explore the operations at NASA's site in Virginia in light of a budding civil rights movement, the infancy of the IBM computer and the hopefulness of the Kennedy presidency.
   The clever pun in the title--figures--denotes both persons and the mathematical operations they performed, and that is how this film points to an even bigger story than early efforts to further opportunities for women and Blacks in America.  The rooms filled with engineers and human computers remind us that most people remain anonymously in the background when great achievements happen.
   Think, for example, of the first man to make it to the North Pole.  This achievement is given to one person, named Robert Peary.  The first Western person to climb Mount Everest, with cameras to prove it, was Sir Edmund Hillary.  However in both cases we easily forget that without their Inuit and Sherpa guides, respectively, neither of these triumphs would have been recorded.  Hundreds of porters were involved even further behind the scenes to carry the 13 tons of baggage to the base camp at Everest [1]. In the case of Robert Peary, there were other hidden figures besides the team of Inuit men who guided him.  There was African American Matthew Henson who has only recently been recognized as instrumental to the success of the trek and also Captain Robert Bartlett, who may have been deliberately left at a base camp so that the glory would not have been shared with him.
   Upon reflection, no invention or accomplishment can be claimed by any one individual.  Not only the network of people around him or her need to be acknowledged but also the technologies and advancements that have paved the way.  Staying with the examples already cited, technologies like the Inuit inventions of sleds and warm clothing, navigation systems, mountain climbing equipment, such as crampons and snow goggles were essential.
   Such acknowledgements are seen, to a certain extent, at awards ceremonies where recipients name or refer to the people who have helped them along the road to their achievements.  Nevertheless, even in the smaller achievements that we take pride in, it is good to remember that we could not have done these difficult things alone or without infrastructures we take for granted.  Admitting this is not just humility, it is honesty.

[1] See the photo caption on https://www.theguardian.com/travel/gallery/2013/may/23/mount-everest-first-successful-ascent-in-pictures