Wee Free Men

A Book Review by Dianne Bynum

So much fun, a great escape…It’s April of 2020 and the world is in the throes of a pandemic. I’ve been sick for a month with a virus that no one fully understands. I needed a book like The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. When my fever broke and I began to feel like reading but I was too feeble to walk about, I’d pick up this book and I’d be transported. Transported back to the time when I was a little girl that looked for evidence of fairies. A little girl that was intrigued by witches and wouldn’t have minded it at all if one crossed my path. It was a beautiful book of rolling Celtic hills, herds of sheep and farmhouses where fine butter is produced. But don’t think that this story is a mere fairytale. I found some First Sight while reading this book. I’ll let the Kelda, queen of the Wee Men explain, “First sight is when you can see what is really there, not what your head tells you ought to be there.” There was a lot to think about in this book. I love this line from Granny Aching, “Them as can do has to do for them as can’t. And someone has to speak up for them as has no voice.” I found strength in those words in a time of such unknown. I’ll have to warn you, there’s lots of “it’s a dream in a dream” stuff that may turn some readers off. You really need to enjoy fantasy before you can earn that Second Thought I spoke of earlier. Also if you’re a fan of Discworld, a series written by Pratchett, you won’t recognize this author. It has some of the same silly humor but this book is deeper and more traditional than the other books that I’ve read by him. I’m lucky to have found this book and I can’t recommend it enough if you’re looking for an escape.

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It’s National Poetry Month

Poem by Sylvia

A million shades of gray

Once I thought life was all black and white

Half a century now gone by…things have gone from day to night

I’ve learned that in the book of life, the words are a colorful array

And everything in between the lines is but a million shades of gray

Once I thought life was all black and white

That everything around me was either wrong or was right

That the world was of nothing but opposite extremes

And then I found that life wasn’t what I saw in my dreams

I once was an idealist and dreamed of everything white

If it wasn’t, it was black and black wasn’t all right

I dreamed of white, pure and good… the color of snow

But over five decades, I have now come to know

Life is as colorful as we choose it to be, but with many shades of gray

Reality lives, and we must understand that the sun doesn’t shine every day

There’s not always a rainbow, there’s not always snow, and darkness doesn’t always thrive… 

It’s not the black and the white but the million shades of gray that actually keep us alive

Written by: Sylvia L. Mattingly 11/30/11

 

Quarantine

John Pavlovitz is a blogger who I follow. His latest post (the link is below) says a lot that is important during this time of physical distancing. I’ve been thinking about blogging about the issues he discusses. He does it so well, please read. Thank You

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2020/04/01/dont-quarantine-yourself-from-life/