Sunday, August 26, 2007

Books, letters and maternal feelings

"You cannot open a book without learning something."
(Confucius, 551 - 479 BC)

My calendar says I have two more weeks to finish reading The Accidental for our book club. And I know I'll be extremely disappointed if I don't finish it in time. However, today I had to postpone my reading (and of course, come up with something smart to entertain my guilty feelings) because of a book about the Middle Ages that I had ordered a couple of weeks ago.

Some of you know that I want to start my Master degree next year. Meanwhile I thought it would be nice to take a fall course in Literature, Arts or whatever course that would match my daughter's schedule at her school. After intense research, and by intense I mean spending hours and hours at the Internet browsing through catalogs and trying to understand how to navigate in sometimes confusing websites, I finally found out that the only course I could take without having to change Estela's schedule was Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance.

"Charlemagne and the Carolingian Renaissance?", I asked Antonio about it.
"Well, I think it's a very interesting subject. Go for it", said my husband trying to bring some sense over my negative thoughts.

And so I did. It was the only option I had, right? The night I enrolled in it I ordered from Amazon a book called Handbook for William - A Carolingian Woman's Counsel for her Son. Needless to say my motherly side spoke louder. When I first placed my eyes on the book I could not think of any other use for it than its historical connotation, even knowing it was a book written
by a mother to her son. But much to my surprise the book reveals itself in its first pages, evidencing the uniqueness of a handbook as the work of a lay noblewoman of the ninth century:

I send you this little book written down in my name, that you may read it for your education, as a kind of mirror.
[...]
I wish you to hold it, turn its pages and read it, so that you may fulfill it in worthy action. For this little model-book is a lesson from me and a task for you.

At the end of my first year living in Astoria I decided to start a handbook for my daughter Estela as a result of living in a foreign land and away from my parents, so later in her life she would be able to understand our choices, learn from our experiences and about our relatives.
I wanted this book to be made of a collection of letters describing our family back in Brazil and discussing the aspects of being far away in a different society. The first and only letter I was able to write was entitled "Appreciating Grandparents".

To be continued ...

1 comment:

Sarah said...

Isabella, I can't wait to hear more about this book and your upcoming literature course. I love the connection of the book to the want/need to give something like that to Estella!