Computers and Biochemistry--Go Figure

It never gets boring, I'll say that. This week I've got a lovely set of lessons on how to work your computer, designed for the novice computer user and marketed to senior citizens. Great series by Labyrinth Books. Even my mom, bless her non-technical heart, could figure things out after taking this course.

As a complete contrast, I've got to wade through biochemistry; fortunately, it's part of Wiley Publishers For Dummies series, so I think my primarily liberal arts brain can handle the concepts at this level. I'll let you all know if it kills my brain instead.

Note on last week's project: Mercy Otis Warren, in addition to all her writing and revolutionizing, managed to live into her eighties. A feat in itself, especially for a woman who had children (five sons in her case).

Mercy Otis Warren and American Revolution

Feb 19, 2008

Things are slowing down a bit this week and next. Might have time to prep my tax information! Joy!

Meanwhile, this is review-the-Revolution week, but through the eyes and pen of Mercy Otis Warren, a woman patriot from the late 18th century who wrote satirical plays and poems against the British in the 1770s. She also compiled a history of the era after the war was over. Her well-to-do circumstances allowed her access to most of the leading patriots of the day, including George and Martha Washington, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Abigail Adams, and most importantly, John Adams, who was her writing mentor.

And it looks like the patriotic fervor of the early days of the Revolution didn't last long. Political divisions between old-fashioned republicans like Mercy and the new Federalists were the source of lost friendships and the ruination of Mercy's husband's career.

It's good to hear from these lost "feminist" voices of earlier periods. When the book is published by Beacon Press later this year, look for it. It's called The Muse of the Revolution, by Nancy Rubin Stuart.

Aunt Cora and South Texas History

Feb 6, 2008

Had to take a partial day off to go to a funeral in Beeville, Texas, for my husband's aunt about a three-hour drive away. Got to see the dry part of Texas in its beginnings, caliche, scrub trees, dryness, dryness. Actually worked on the edit of an index on the British West Indies on the way down (my brother-in-law drove us). Amazing that work and other stuff can be done at the same time in this kind of business.

The aunt, named Cora, being memorialized was 92 at her demise; think about that. She was born in 1915...1915, near the beginning of the last century. And she lived a life that very few live anymore, a life on the land, living from the land, giving back to the land. Everytime my husband, Matt, went to visit as a child from his home in Corpus Christi, he and his siblings were feasted and feted and left free to explore the ranch by this gentle, patient, creative woman. She created homegrown food, really homegrown in the back yard, animals culled from the domestic and the wild, plants pulled from the home garden. She had no riches from our 21st-century perspective, but she was incredibly wealthy, both emotionally and materially in all the basics of life. She was one of the last of the women in the pioneer spirit. Feminists might call her oppressed, but she didn't feel that way. She felt blessed. Her legacy is vast, in children, in passing on a love of the land, and a sense of stewardship over it. I was very moved by her passing, even though I didn't know her at all in life.

It was great to be able to take off amidst all the deadlines and experience this slice of rare experiential history. Kinda brings to life all the books I've indexed on Texas history.