Their Job is to Read, Our Job is to Feed Them

I am looking for good digital photos of children reading, to use in a literacy campaign that benefits a food pantry here in Bloomington. I've put out the call to a few friends, and Sheff, of Seven Sidekicks, immediately answered. YAY! Sheff is the Dadiator, a young green builder who became the father of 7 kids within 7 years, through adoption and the production of bio-babies. There they are in a school line-up, checking their backpacks. Got books?

If you haven't clicked over to Seven Sidekicks, do it today – it's a great day brightener. You'll find mom Deirdre's 'Boredom Buster' tips, including the brilliant idea to give any youngster who complains of boredom the mini-vac and permission to vacuum the stairs. (This doesn't work with teenagers, alas.)

On the left is a YAY gift that entered our home thanks to my niece Jade. It is one of my favorite handcrafted objects, and certainly one of the best gifts a person could ask for. Jade is an artist, and like her big sister Jasmine, she is a great reader. They are both writers, too – stories and poems and art projects just pour out of them. How do they do it? Partly because from the beginning, before they could talk, their mom (especially) has been reading to them every day. (Now, of course, they often read to her.)

Our campaign is called HEALTHY MINDS HEALTHY BODIES. It's Read-a-Thon with the Cardinal Stage Company, in support of Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, a food pantry that also gives workshops on nutrition and organizes urban community gardens. Those nutrition classes, by the way, aren't the boring kind loaded with dubious advice from the same nutrition specialists who recommend highly processed foods. They are the 'garden variety' kind – the kind where you might learn how to bake a potato or ferment a beet, where you learn how to eat and enjoy real food.

Real food and lots of books – and the joys of parenting, even in hard times. That's what we are getting at here. If you feel like sending me photos, I will respond with a YAY!

The Diary of Anne Frank, by Wendy Kesselman

Tonight I saw our local Cardinal Stage Company production of "The Diary of Anne Frank" at the John Waldron Arts Center in Bloomington IN. The acting, set design, and adaptation were wonderful, and playwright Wendy Kesselman was in attendance. There was a talk-back after the show with the cast, playwright, Alvin Rosenfeld from the IU Department of Jewish Studies, and Randy White, brilliant CSC artistic director.

Two years ago my family traveled to Amsterdam, where we visited the Anne Frank Haus. It is a very moving experience to walk through the small rooms where these people lived for so long, on top of one another, unable to go outdoors, in fear for their lives, dependent on the unfailing help of Meip Gies. This version of the play best captures the experience of living in hiding, bringing the voice of Anne's diary to the stage without diminishing the horror of the holocaust.

I am thrilled that we have theater in Bloomington of this caliber, put together with such attention to detail, providing a context for discussion of the Holocaust, of writing, and of the issues raised by this show. The play speaks to the difficulty of maintaining intimacy and autonomy under the stress of dehumanization.

I've always found photos of Anne and her family to be very moving, in part because they remind me of photos of my mother and her sister Marlene when they were children – at the same moment in history, growing up in small towns in North Dakota.

In the photo here, of Anne and her sister Margot at a party when they were young, the blurry faces of two of the children speak to the smudging out of the past, and of childhood happiness. At the same time, it is a beautiful photo. If you click on it (in the small version on the left), you will find information about the Cardinal Stage Company and this wonderful production.