America Peals

So I am a thinking woman. And, one thing that is not reflected in this blog is my compulsive reading habits. I tend to read 2-3 books a week. And, it’s almost exclusively fiction.

The strange thing is that in High School I thought I had a learning disability because reading never got done for English class. My mother cleared that problem up in one phrase: Jesus, Mary and Joseph! You are lazy. Read the friggin book so I don’t have to help you write another paper as long as I live.

It makes me laugh because my mom is like the mother on Everyone Loves Raymond crossed with Nurse Jackie. She had no tolerance nor any time to ascertain a learning disability. It kind of reminded me of when I asked my mom at 6 years old if we could go camping during the summer like all the other Wellesley Families. Carol’s retort: Your father and I work very hard. Camping in not a vacation for us. I want clean, fresh sheets and free products at a hotel. I don’t want to shit in the woods.

Anyway, back to reading. I do not know why I am compelled to share what I am reading now. It’s a strange book, entitled, The Wolf  Totem, by Jiang Rong.  As I always judge a book by its cover, there are negative etchings on a light blue background of a grimacing wolf and mountain range and the kerning of the typography won me over (I know shut up, showoff).

The story is about a Chinese student who during the Cultural Revolution in China is sent to Mongolia to learn how to control and manage the wolf population. Apparently, the Mongolian grasslands are not only vast but live and die by the population of wolves. Wolves apparently are revered by the god Teggner. So, the story is literally a battle of balance with Mongolian wolf hunters and wolves keeping tabs on each other.

Everything becomes a fine mess during a savage scene where nomads were leading their prized horses home and a blizzard struck. Apparently, the wolves caught wind of this. They descended on the horses by forcing them into a ravine where they slaughtered them. The two nomads survived but not without losing face.

What I find curious is this cultural attachment to making nature sacred. This is not something that I experience in my day to day life. One really has to work hard to appreciate nature, make it part of ones life let alone derive the spiritual benefits when one acknowledges she is just one teardrop in an ocean.

Back to the wolves, I have to tell you readers, study them. I have read Farley Mowat , John Muir and this new author. I do not want to give much away but let me put it to you this way, like an ABC After School Special, Genghis Khan, that mean son of bitch, who ruled for almost  century over Asia, had small troops. He is said to have procured his Empire  through the careful observation of Mongolian wolves.

What can I observe and worship out here in Wellesley? The surfeit of dogs with Poets’ names? Several years ago, the Townsmen reported on the “sacred” animals of our town. Racoons. A Police blotter reported: Resident reported raccoon with head stuck in frozen yogurt cup terrorizing Cliff Estate children.

Only in Wellesley, kids…