Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch is a novel that was written as a collaboration between Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett in 1990. It’s a funny, entertaining book about friendship and appreciating humanity. I find it fitting that friends wrote the story together.

The book’s premise is that the end of the world is near. The final battle between Good and Evil will occur according to the Divine Plan. The Antichrist is born and delivered to a hospital in England, and he will be raised by an American diplomat.

An angel named Aziraphale and a demon named Crowley must play their assigned roles, but they don’t want to. They’ve lived on Earth among humans for so long that they enjoy it, and they don’t want to world to end. Beyond that, after being enemies for 6,000 years, they’ve ended up becoming friends.

So together, Crowley and Aziraphale decide to sabotage the end of the world, or at least postpone it so that they have more time. They plan to help raise the Antichrist so that he can’t tell the difference between Good and Evil. But the problem is, they lose track of the baby. Meanwhile, the Antichrist Adam Young ends up growing up in Lower Tadfield, an idyllic English village.

Chaos ensues as Aziraphale and Crowley try to locate the Antichrist, and the armies of Good and Evil amass their forces. The story is full of humor and was a fun read.

Along with making me smile, the book made me reflect. Maybe it’s appropriate that I read this book during this time while living in Portland, OR during the pandemic. As I read about the horsemen, I realized that I’ve felt that all four were at my door during the past years.

War – The city has been destroyed by riots and fighting between protesters and the police, Antifa and the Proud Boys, and political and class warfare. Helicopters circled overhead for months. You could hear the sounds of anger and flash-bang grenades on the streets. Stores are still boarded up and closed.

Famine – The homeless crisis in Portland has been unbearable with people living in squalor in tents on sidewalks. During covid, this escalated, and at the start of this year, there were probably more people living in tents within a block of my apartment building than there were tenants in my building itself. So many people who lived downtown left the city (and even the state) in a mass urban flight.

Pestilence/Pollution – Of course, covid. And beyond that, there were massive wildfires during the first year of the pandemic that made the sky appear yellow and orange. Ash fell from above like snow. Last summer’s heat dome here in the Pacific Northwest shattered temperature records. These events were not good omens.

Death – Death has seemed to hover so close at hand with so many people sick and dying worldwide during the pandemic. I’ve had family members who have been sick with covid. Throughout the pandemic, I’ve had recurring dreams of a friend who died unexpectedly. Sometimes, I feel like his ghost wants to talk to me.

I wouldn’t have thought to compare these events and experiences in my own life to the four horsemen of the apocalypse if not for reading this book. What a strange, eerie feeling to recognize such similarities between fiction and life.

If only I tried to dispel the horsemen with a sword crafted from twigs and twine, a handmade pair of scales, and a crown of grasses and flowers…

Sometimes you read books when you need them, and stories help you heal. That’s what this book did for me in reminding me of the power of small actions and finding a way to laugh and smile when it feels like the end is near.

Adam was right. There’s more to do, see, imagine, learn, and explore. There’s joy in being human. And there’s more living to do. There are friends to find and care for—even angels and demons. In this world, nothing is set in stone. Change is always possible.

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Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

Here are a couple of photographs I took at the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden this past weekend. It's a lovely place to visit in the spring when the flowers are blooming.

Reflections at the Crystal Springs Lake

 

Azaleas

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Bright Dead Things by Ada Limón

Bright Dead Things is a book of poems by Ada Limón that was published in 2015. Limón's poems are raw and personal. In reading them, I felt I was caught in an intense flood of emotions.

The title of the volume comes from Limón's poem "I Remember the Carrots" where she remembers ripping up her father's carrot crop as a child and loving her "own bright dead things." This poem was one of my favorites.

I also loved the closing lines of her poem "Outside Oklahoma, We See Boston," where Limón writes about the mud swallows building their nests,

How do they do it? Demand the sweet continuance of birth and flight in a place so utterly reckless? How masterful and mad is hope.

It was a thoughtful, intimate, engaging read.

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Flowers and A New Leaf

There have been some signs of spring here in Portland though many days have felt as blustery and cold as winter. I brought out my sundresses a month ago, but still have yet to wear them. Today, the sun is peaking out from behind the rain clouds, and I feel like spring is in the air. I'm not quite sure if I'm falling for another one of Mother Nature's tricks or not...

Flowers are blooming all the same. Here are a few recent photos from my walks near home.

A pretty beach strawberry bloom:

A saturated photograph of a little buttercup:

A delicate iris in the park:

A new leaf unfurling in my window garden:

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Forever Words by Johnny Cash

Forever Words: The Unknown Poems is a collection of Johnny Cash's poems and writings that was published posthumously in 2016. It's a remarkable look at Johnny Cash's artistry and writing process. One of my favorite things about the book is that selected lyrics and poems were presented in his own handwriting.

In his forward to the book, John Carter Cash describes his father's intellectual curiosity and love of reading and writing. Paul Muldoon's introduction describes the rationale behind publishing Johnny Cash's words after his death to "broaden and deepen our perception of Johnny Cash and his legacy." I've been thinking a lot about the quote Muldoon shared from T.S. Eliot's "Tradition and Individual Talent" that, "No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone."

A few of my favorite poems in the volume include "Chinky Pink Hill" (which I discuss here), "Does Anybody Out There Love Me?," "If You Love Me," "My Song, " "I'll Still Love You," and "You Never Knew My Mind."

"Forever" had a profoundly beautiful closing:

The songs I sang
Will still be sung

Johnny Cash's poem "Don't Make a Movie About Me" gave me a laugh with its opening lines:

If anybody made a movie out of my life
I wouldn't like it, but I'd watch it twice

I wonder if Johnny Cash would have watched "Walk the Line" twice.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Forever Words. It's a great read for any fan of The Man in Black.

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The Creation by E.O. Wilson

The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth (2006) is a short book by Edward O. Wilson. In it, E.O. Wilson makes an appeal to preserve Earth's biodiversity. The book is written as a letter to a Southern pastor, and though Wilson sometimes returns to this concept, most of the book is geared towards general readers, students, naturalists, scientists, and teachers.

While my husband was at Harvard, we lived in a building where E.O. Wilson once lived. I also share his deep appreciation for the natural world.

One of my favorite quotes from this book is the introduction to Chapter 7, "Wild Nature and Human Nature," pictured below:

"Our relationship to Nature is primal. The emotions it evokes arose during the forgotten prehistory of mankind, and hence are deep and shadowed. Like childhood experiences lost from conscious memory, they are commonly felt but rarely articulated. Poets, at the highest human level of expression, try."

One of my other favorite quotes is in Chapter 13, "Exploration of a Little-Known Planet," where Wilson writes,

"Each species is a small universe in itself, from its genetic code to its anatomy, behavior, life cycle, and environmental role, and a self-perpetuating system created during an almost unimaginably complicated evolutionary history. Each species merits careers of scientific study and celebration by historians and poets."

Wilson emphasizes how much there remains to be learned about living creatures, how many species remain undiscovered, and how important it is to protect all forms of life on Earth.


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