books
After the Revolution, Rotten Fruit, Discouragement–And Hope
During my college years in the 1980s, I was a (nominal) cradle Catholic, and fairly immersed in the college culture of the time. I was especially drawn to various trendy, or what we called back in the day “politically correct,” ideas and philosophies.
Mary Eberstadt’s Adam and Eve After the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution reminds me of hearing that speech. This book is not enjoyable –in fact, reading it can be downright discouraging. But it is a must-read in understanding, “the moral core of the sexual revolution (is) the abundant evidence that its fruits have been rottenest for women and children.”
In many ways, My Peace I Give You is a personal testimonial to the rotten fruits documented in Adam and Eve After the Pill. As a child of divorce, Eden experienced sexual abuse in various settings, then as a young adult lived promiscuously to “take control” of her sexuality. But wholeness and true happiness remained elusive.
"Without Preaching or Apology": Q&A with Alberto Salazar, author of "14 Minutes"
Here is my Catholic Post interview with legendary runner Alberto Salazar about his memoir 14 Minutes. I reviewed 14 Minutes here. Alberto, thank you for being willing to answer all my questions. I’ll be watching the Olympics (along with the rest of the world) and see how your runners do.
Q. I really enjoyed reading 14 Minutes. Why did you want to write a book at this point in your life and career?
This certainly isn’t a quiet or contemplative period of my life. In fact, with the continuing success of the Oregon Project, and the London Olympics coming up, I’m busier than ever. Nonetheless, I felt called to write this book as a way to explore the meaning of my near death experience. Why was I spared? What is God’s plan for me? I don’t think you can grapple with those questions at your own convenience. Also, as my “14 minutes” dramatically showed me, next year, or even tomorrow, is never guaranteed.
Q. You write how you are wary of being held up as a Catholic role model, but I appreciate how you share your Catholic faith (and its ups and downs) openly. In fact, I read part of the book to my husband, who is a Catholic theologian, and he said approvingly, “He’s using technical language there!”
In particular, the prayer you say as a child (“Please, Mother, when I die, don’t let me be afraid. Bring me straight to heaven to your son Jesus”) runs as a theme throughout your various experiences. How would you say that your faith has matured over the years, while still retaining that child-like confidence?
My Catholic faith has definitely grown and matured over the years, but the progress of my faith has hardly followed a straight line. There have been peaks and valleys, cycles and seasons. For instance, as I write in the book, I don’t pray today with the same intensity and frequency that I did during periods of crisis in my younger life, but that doesn’t mean my faith has lessened, or that another intense cycle of prayer doesn’t await me in the future. I think following the faith of my father, mother, and forebears–the Roman Catholic Church as part of Cuban-American history–has helped me maintain some core of child-like confidence.
Q. You were without a heartbeat for 14 minutes after a massive heart attack in 2007. After that experience, are you afraid of death?
I don’t think it’s possible to completely lose your fear of death. I think my experiences have helped me somewhat in understanding death, and if you understand something you tend to fear it less.
Q. You write about coaching Olympic hopefuls, especially Galen Rupp. What’s the status of that, and will you be in London this summer for the Olympics?
We are lucky to have some of the finest distance runners in the world as members of the Nike Oregon Project. They include Mo Farah, a citizen of Great Britain, who joined our team two years ago, and Galen Rupp, a native of Portland, Oregon, who I have been coaching for more than a decade. Besides being ideal training partners, they are also great friends. Mo and Galen will both be running the 10,000 meters at the London Olympics, where they will be competitors rather than teammates. It will be very interesting to see how that plays out. Dathan Ritzenhein, another outstanding Oregon Project athlete, will also be running the Olympic 10,000 for the U.S.
Q. Tell us a little more about the Nike Oregon Project and where you see it going in the future.
The Nike Oregon Project started in 2001 with the goal of developing a select group of world-class U.S. distance runners. Over the last year we’ve added Mo Farah and one or two other non-U.S. athletes. I see that international reach continuing into the future, and U.S. distance runners–both from the Oregon Project and other training groups–continuing to reduce the gap between them and the great runners from the East African nations.
Q. You, and those you coach, are in a different category than non-competitive runners (like me). I ran a marathon, but my goal was finishing, as opposed to a time, and I’m grateful to live in a time when people like me are cheered when we finish. I was annoyed to read a New York Times article recently about how some fast runners resent or don’t consider the rest of us “real runners,” yet I recognize that different runners will have different goals. Any thoughts on that, or do you have any words of wisdom for non-competitive runners?
Well, now I’m just a regular, non-competitive runner myself, but the sport is still crucially important to me. I still consider myself a “real” runner, and any real runner knows that the mark of legitimacy is effort, not results. Also, as I write in the book, “real” runners depend on their daily workout as a time of prayer or meditation–it doesn’t matter if you run the marathon in 2:08 or 5:08.
Q. You worked with gifted sportswriter John Brant on this book. What was that process like, and do you think he was able to incorporate your voice fully into the book?
John and I had a great time working together on this book. He asked good questions, and we had some memorable conversations.
Q. Is there anything else you would like to add, or wish I that I would have asked?
Thanks for these insightful questions, and for your interest in 14 Minutes. I’m especially gratified by your focus on the faith journey portrayed in the book. I tried to talk about my spiritual life without preaching or apology.
For Father’s Day: Great Dads in Fiction (A Re-Post)
I’m re-running this post from 2010 because I had an idea to write a post like this for Father’s Day, and then I realized that I had already! I thought it was worthwhile sharing again, and I’d love to hear your favorite dads in fiction. Next year, I resolve to write a post for Mother’s Day on great moms in fiction, but I suspect that would be even harder to write.
When I had this idea for talking about great dads in fiction, I didn’t realize how hard it would be to come up with a number of great dads, or at least pretty good ones!
Many dads and moms in fiction I love are absent, dead or not a factor. In others, the dad is considerably less than ideal, and that’s kind of the point. But here’s a fair, by no means exhaustive, list of good and great dads to consider.
I am indebted to my almost-teenaged daughter, who helped me immensely in ideas for great dads in the youth fiction in particular, especially why they are so good, and for helping in describing Emma’s father so well.
1. Mr. Henry Woodhouse, Emma’s father, in Jane Austen’s Emma. As those who know me know, I am a huge Austen fan, and I dearly love the novel and the title character. Emma’s father is overly concerned about safety and health of those he loves, always fussing and forecasting doom. While he is a bit of a comic character (but really, I ask you, who isn’t in Emma?), he is loving, kind and generous. The love and respect shown to him by his daughter & future son-in-law by their decision to live at his house after marriage rather than have him separated even by a mile from his younger daughter, speaks volumes.
My husband has never read Emma, but enjoyed watching with my daughters this winter the excellent most recent adaptation that aired on PBS, and they took to calling him “Mr. Woodhouse” as he is a teensy bit of a worrier. He could be heard to say on a number of occasions since then, “Are you not taking a scarf? You might get chilled.” and “No cake, especially for the children. There must not be cake.”
(Mr. Woodhouse looks kind of scary in this photo, but he’s really dear in the book, as well as in this excellent 2009 BBC adaptation of the novel.)
2. Lavrans Bjorgulfsson, father of Kristin in Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. Lavrans is by no means perfect, but so real, like many fathers. I find him honorable, steadfast, so realistic in many ways, from his work among his farmer tenants to his sacrificial work on behalf of his family, to his fierce loyalty to and protection of Kristin’s honor, both when she does and does not deserve it.
3. Father Francis Chisolm in A.J. Cronin’s The Keys of the Kingdom. This fantastic novel follows the life of Father Francis’s entire life, though it primarily takes place and his missionary work in China. The 1944 movie starred Gregory Peck, and while it is wonderful, it is a bit more pat and wrapped up nicely than the novel. If you’ve seen the movie, give the book a try, and vice versa.
Why is Father Francis Chisolm such a great father/Father? First, how he lives the Gospel through his life more than his words. Second, Father Chisolm has a passionate, Catholic ecuminism that spans cultures and promotes the deepest kind of friendship. Finaly, he is brave and good, and only wants the best for his spiritual children, both temporal and spiritual goods, and seeks to provide them.
4. Caddie Woodlawn’s father in Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink. This is a children’s book, but would be enjoyed by anyone. He is noble, calm-headed, kind, but firm with his children. I don’t want to give anything away from the novel (because if you haven’t read it, please do! It’s a treat!), but his American spirit of hard work and equality brings tears to my eyes whenever I read this children’s novel.
5. Pa in The Little House books. Pa’s total love of his family, his dear affection for his brood, is so charming and winning. Most of us who grew up reading the books and watching the television show immediately think, “Where’s my little half-pint of sweet cider half drunk up?”
6. Robert Ray, the father of Betsy Ray, the central characters in the Besty-Tacy series of books, that fabulous semi-autobiographical collection of stories by Maud Hart Lovelace. (For our family’s literary pilgrimage to the places that inspired the books, you can read all about it here.) There are ten altogether in the series, set in early 20th century Minnesota; the firs four are best for younger kids, and the rest good for older kids and adults. Mr. Ray is a benevolent, hardworking patriarch to three daughters, and lends a loving, mischievous paternal presence in these books full of fun and love. In Betsy & Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, Mr. Ray successfully referees a “terrible” quarrel between Betsy, Tacy & Tib, and older sisters Julia and Katie.
Any great dads in fiction that you care to share?
Meet a Reader: Lee Hall
"14 Minutes": Life, Death, and Faith
14 Minutes isn’t by any stretch a “Catholic” book, and it isn’t an “America’s running glory days” book either, thought it has a lot about both. Salazar is especially wary of being held up as a Catholic role model, but wants to share honestly his life experience and how much faith has been a part of his journey.
Mid-book, he writes, “I am not trying to portray myself as a religious expert here, any more than I tried to make a political point when describing my father’s relationship with Castro; I’m simply relating my own experiences and interpretations.”
Instead, 14 Minutes is the memoir of someone who has lived through much, including: the excesses inherent in becoming a world-class athlete; the heartbreak of injuries and illness that cut his career short; family dysfunction and healing; depression and mental health issues; and a reflective Catholic faith.
Salazar sees the hand of God in every part of his life, but writes, “You have to look hard and long for it and accept that most of the time the touch will remain ineffable.”
14 Minutes reveals a spiritually and emotionally mature Salazar, who looks back on his achievements and his mistakes with equal measure of humility and compassion.
My disclaimer here is that I am a runner, but that isn’t why I liked 14 Minutes so much. Even though I’ve finished a marathon, all I wanted to do was finish, unlike Salazar, who confides to a close friend in college that he plans to set a world record in the marathon (and then does just that). It’s clear from the earliest chapters that Salazar is in a different category than the rest of us, when it comes to running.
So while there aren’t training tips to be gleaned from 14 Minutes, readers will learn much about persistence, maturity and faith, all wrapped up in a great sports story.
As I’ve said many times before, I’m decidedly not a fan of the current trend of irreverent semi-fictional memoirs, often written by people far too young to be reflecting on their life “so far.”
But as Sir Walter Scott wrote, “There is no life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed.” A well-told memoir like 14 Minutes is a testimony to the heroic in one man’s life, and offers each reader a chance to reflect on the heroic is every person.