Thursday, February 10, 2011

Where?

Most of this reading will probably happen in my bed after the kids are asleep.  There is the slight possibility that I will develop some discipline along the way and sit studiously at the kitchen table in the quiet early morning hours thoughtfully scribbling in the margins and cross-referencing the piles of open books heaped at my elbow.  I won't rule it out.  I would like that scene to show up in the movie montage leading up to the climax when I run up the stairs of the Philadelphia Museum of Art in a grey track suit and then stand atop a stack of faux-leather bound Great Books, fists raised high in a victory salute. So I won't rule it out. 

Those are the possible specific locations but my general location will be changing soon.  Right now we live near Berkeley CA and I will start my reading here.   But in a few months we will be moving to North Carolina where most of the reading will occur.  This is going to be a long haul (the move, yes, but really I refer to the reading)  so there is another slight possibility that during my Great Endeavor we will move again to another state.  I will rule it out. We have moved, on average, every year of our married life.  If I have to move one more time, even if it is in 15 years when I will most likely be getting to the end of this odyssey (with a small "o"...it would suck if it took me 15 years just to get through THE Odyssey), I may have to follow the example of some of the folks I will be reading about and poke my own eyes out.

What?

The Great Books of the Western World. The Western Canon.  The Big Kahuna.  I would tell you more about them but I am too lazy to go onto wikipedia and find out their history.  I am sure it is a checkered one full of intrigue and controversy and wood paneled academic offices populated by bowtied men swilling brandy and arguing in a cloud of pipe smoke.  It's a mystery, this whole business of putting together all the indispensible books ever written in the western hemisphere into one sixty volume set. Tell you what I will do. I know this guy, you talk to him and he will tell you everything you ever wanted to know.  Be sure to mention me and your in. Just click on his name. It's  Mortimer Adler.  He's a riot.
What wonders do they hold?

Who?

My name is Rebekah.  I am a few weeks shy of 35.  I am married and have four children.  In truth I don't really need much help avoiding the laundry. I've been avoiding it just fine for eleven years. I am just looking for a loftier reason not to do it.  Enter The Great Books, stage right.