Part Three, Dispatches from the Edge

"We like to think we're so advanced. We like to imagine we have protection from our own dark impulses. The truth is, it doesn't take much for all of that to be stripped away. Desperate people sometimes do terrible things....the lights go out, the temperatures rise, and very quickly we get in touch with emotions that the cool air keeps at bay. We are capable of anything. I've seen it again and again. Great compassion, terrible carnage-the choice is up to us."

In Anderson Cooper's "Dispatches from the Edge," the CNN reporter documents his journeys in the field through some of this world's most recent traumatizing disasters. Using personal stories of heartache and confusion over the dramatic and widely publicized suicide of his brother and death of his father, Cooper attempts a reconciliation with both his own past, and the personal stories of loss and tragedy in areas affected by the tsunami, the war in Iraq, Sarajevo, Somalia, Niger, and New Orleans.

One cant deny that Cooper is a man on a mission. One that seeks out the worst of the worst and truly attempts to tell stories as they are...with all of the carnage and danger of a war zone, the disease and filth of natural disasters, and the inhumanities of famine affecting children. Surprisingly unbiased, I think this is a book every American citizen should read. It's a book about the world and how it operates. It's a book about the life that is a reality for much of this planet and how different it is from the life we live in front of the t.v. in America. Best of all, it's a book that breaches the naivete most of us feel when we fall asleep in our comfortable, suburban, U.S. homes. Maybe a book that will actually encourage someone into positive action. Even if it's just one....

"I wished I knew how to explain it to them. It's as if a window opens, and you realize the world has been re-formed. I wanted to see the starvation. I needed to remind myself of its reality. I worry that if I get too comfortable, too complacent, I'll lose all feeling, all sensation." -Anderson Cooper, explaining to his friends why he is cutting his Rwandan vacation short to witness the estimated 3.5 million Nigereans at severe risk of starvation.

Intermission (subtitle: I'm Naked)

I'm taking a quick break from my 3 part book review (mostly cause my name is still on the waiting list at the library for Dispatches From the Edge). I just went to Oklahoma this weekend to visit some friends and had a blast. Still processing some of the trip overall, but I definitely enjoyed myself immensely. Anyways, I flew myself (and a couple of friends) so of course we were able to take water, pocket knives, and chapstick and flew in and out of small airports so we didn't have to worry about lines, security, check-in etc. That was fabulous.

Ok.....the real point of my blog: I am now back in Colorado and my cell phone is not. In fact it is sitting in my friend's guest bedroom as I type this. I feel naked. I feel as though something very valuable has been lost and my life will not return to normal until I retrieve it. I was joking with my friend and said that I would have guessed that I'd be more likely to leave my wallet behind, or leave without a shirt on or something. Ten years ago my daily life in no way hinged on a phone. Now for some reason I think that I'm going to have multiple 9-1-1 worthy emergencies in the next 24 hours and no way to report them. Technology is genious. It creates an illusion of dependency that previously did not exist, and then walks to the bank when the masses blindly oblige.

One of my biggest fears without a cell phone was that I would sleep till noon and feel grogy the rest of the day since my phone also doubles as my alarm clock. Turns out I actually got up an hour earlier naturally than I did with the phone and alarm. Interesting.

Part Two, The Reason Behind the Rhyme

"Heavy Words Lightly Thrown" by Chris Roberts

In some cultures an egg symbolizes the soul. In others an egg that falls and breaks is a symbol of an unwanted pregnancy. Humpty Dumpty was also an egg and because of this, scholars have studied the origin of many popular children's rhymes to determine exactly the meaning and context the original tale. Chances are that humpty dumpty wasn't a allegory for an unplanned pregnancy, but a story of a large canon improperly used during the English Civil War by Cavaliers in 1648.

Not all rhymes are so simple though. Apparently Jack and Jill lost their virginity up on that hill. Breaking your crown, in the context of which the poem was originally written, is a euphemism for having sex for the first time and going up the hill probably means that Jack and Jill were celebrating a pagan May-day fertility ritual.

In other rhymes, politics and religion of the time are highlighted. In the original context of Yankee Doodle, British soldiers were making fun of the American Revolutionary soldiers' inability to properly dress for war (he stuck a feather in his cap, and called it macaroni). After gaining independence however, the Americans adopted the tune and with great irony played it as the Brits signed documents acknowledging surrender of the States. Baa, Baa, Blacksheep is meant as a guide to taxation during feudal times in England as one bag of wool symbolizes a third of farmers income going to the King, one third to the church (represented by the Dame in the rhyme) and the final third left for the little boy, or the farmers themselves. And lastly, those three blind mice whose tails got cut off, were actually three blind men (either specific individuals or a whole group of rebellious protestants) who saved up their money to have an English bible read aloud to them which was a crime against Catholic law. They were burned at the steak. Apparently in East Sussex, there is a huge bonfire held every year to commemorate the protestant martyrs.