another delightful read

I have finished the first hundred pages or so of "The Impossible Will Take a Little While" and I have very much enjoyed it so far. It is a compilation of essays, and so the styles and content are disparate. But the theme that weaves through it all is one of hope and action. I am struck over and over how a community of like-minded people is so important to support one another, and I am struck at how the chain links together.

Back in college, I worked with a program for middle school kids - especially girls and minorities - hoping to foster a love of math and science. And we watched this dorky series called Connections by James Burke if I remember correctly. It seems like there were ten episodes or so of this series. And in the first nine, he talked about the development of different inventions. How the princess in France getting sick caused this guy to think about that, and the shortage of ivory for billiard balls forced this guy to think about something else, and then another guy brings it all together, and voila, you have radar. The last episode took those nine inventions and showed how each was essential to the development of the space shuttle.

Anyway, that was a scientific exploration, and this book is personal. Rosa Parks didn't just get tired one day and decide not to move to the back of the bus. She was active in the local NAACP, had attended meetings and seminars with people who spoke about nonviolent resistance. It seems like such an amazing thing she touched off, and it was, but to focus one that one moment separate from the millions of moments that preceded it takes it out of context.

Anyway, I am just rambling now. It is quite an entertaining read so far.