Work and play

Strange as it might seem, September is closing in on its halfway mark. Could the time go any faster? Meanwhile, I've done a lot of reading over the last few days. I started reading Dave Duncan's 'Great Game' series, I finished reading 'Jude the Obscure' (heart-rendingly sad at the end) and I'm reading more Atwood. Her book 'Survival', which is an eye-opener. Is Canada truly a nation of victims? That's what Atwood seems to suggest. Victims of nature, of each other, and of the world beyond our victimized borders. She found a quote that really impressed me, however. "It is meaningless to call anyone a foreigner in this country. We are all foreigners here." (J. Marlyn). R.E.M. paraphrased this quote rather nicely with their line "Everybody here comes from somewhere." Yeah, this probably wasn't what they were talking about at all, but it makes for a good connection. Canada, from its earliest Aborigninal peoples to the newest refugee seeking a safer life, is a nation of immigrants and foreigners. That is a fact. It would be better not to point fingers at each other and say 'Go back to where you came from!' If we all did that, Canada would be empty before long.
On the work front, I visited a really awesome French bookstore in St. Boniface on Saturday. Came back with half a dozen catalogues full of books from Quebec and France. A nice haul. I've already started work on a spreadsheet of books I want to buy from these catalogues. One drawback about getting books from France is that the prices are in euros. The guy suggested that the euro is like the pound (twice the amount in dollars). I just have to send him the list and the prices in euros and he'll tell me what the price is in dollars. All part of a rather busy weekend. Now I'm back to work and the classes are starting to come for library. I'm excited and hoping the books I ordered in June come in soon so I can get them on the shelves. I'm going to order as many French books as possible so I can get weeding and knocking that collection into order. And that's the plan on the work front.
Time I got back to 'Survival'. BYE.

Pointing to change

I finished reading 'The essence of Sri Guru Granth Sahib; part 1' the other day. There are five parts to this series of Sikh spiritual literature, and the second part's warming up on my shelf, reading for reading. I should've known better than to read this book from cover to cover, for it's a series of hymns and sermons that are probably sung in Punjabi when Sikhs gather to pray for Guru's intersecession. Fool that I am, I decided to trudge through the book and read as much per sitting as possible. As a result, I came across a great deal of repetition. The translator didn't do direct translation as much as translate the spirit of the recitation as best he could. As a result, the English paragraphs are far longer (in some cases) than their Punjabi counterparts. I wish the translator and the editor had met with a good proofreader, for I fear it was in this department that the book fails miserably. I think I've mentioned this tome in a previous journal post, but I'm not sure.
The editor's goal was certainly noble, and nobody can fault him for wanting to share this information with others. He's not trying to convert anyone, I don't think; if anything, he's preaching to the converted, and that's all right. If anyone is converted along the way, that is a decision they have made. I'm just saying that he could've done this material a lot more justice than he did. There are glaring spelling errors that a ten-year-old would've spotted easily. Call me picky if you wish, but I like it when the editor, author, or publishing house catch all obvious errors before they release a book to the public. Failure to do so belittles and demeans the quality of the book's contents. Especially where spiritual materials are concerned.
Having said that, however, the book does the job it was published to do, I think. Meanwhile, the book's message found its way into my head. One can only put up a defence for so long; after a while, the book ends up rubbing off on to you. So I got to thinking about the message, along with other messages I have come across in other books. My friend's words about everything being connected ring true once again. I started looking at this Sikh book with my Buddhist bifocals and came to conclusion that everything is connected and that the only way one is going to get anywhere is if one surrenders to their chosen deity and changes their perception of the world. How many more reminders do I need before I get off my butt and get on it?
BYE.