Yarn Along

So I ripped back my color work project again about 2 weeks ago, and have been stewing again.  I know.  It was such a waste of time.  But as they say, a stitch in time saves nine.  This will be a marathon project and I want to pull back as soon as I realize it’s not right.  Now it’s right.  I’ve actually made it past my typical “8 inch simmer” time and I’m nearly done with all of the neck increases, and it’s going to be smooth sailing here for awhile.  I really hope this turns out how I have it in my head.  I really hope my math is right.

I’m working on 2 books, both strikingly different.  I’m still reading Own Your Life by Sally Clarkson.  It’s a book that I have been reading slowly because there’s so much to think about there.  I don’t want to rush it.

I also started a book that I found out about randomly on Facebook, as one of my friends posted a picture of it with the comment “This is the most interesting book I have ever read.” It’s about North Korea.  I was intrigued.  It’s called Nothing to Envy.

I love history.  Historical books get me so excited.  I feel uncomfortable when I hear of historical events that I totally don’t understand.  In jr. high I read a biography on Harriet Tubman, and I got on a big Civil War kick for awhile, from a slave perspective.  When I was a teen I was really into reading anything involving WWII, Hitler, or Anne Frank.  Then in college I read Killer Angels and that brought me into looking at the Civil War from a military point of view which was a whole new layer. (I revisit these interests of mine often.)  I think it was last year I read a book on the Russian royal family that was all killed during the revolution.  I learned why that happened, and what followed.  It was fascinating because it was so far out of my realm of knowledge.

I don’t know much about the Korean War.  I know bits and pieces of it, but let’s be honest: what I know, I know from the t.v. show “M.A.S.H.”   I don’t know why we were in it, why it ended, and how it got us with where we are today.  This book is written by a journalist who writes about the lives of 6 different people who currently live in South Korea, after defecting from North Korea.  She interviewed several people but these were the stories she was able to verify through multiple sources.

I’m only at the beginning, reading about the first person’s story.  The author goes back into the history of this person, and talks about where their parents were during the war, and where their family was originally from, etc.  (I should give a warning that I’ve come across 1 swear word so far.)  I’m learning so much about the Korean culture, or I should say the modern world’s assault of Korean culture.  I learned about the Japanese occupation of Korea prior to Japan surrendering in WWII, and how that created a power vacuum in Korea that made Washington D.C. nervous.  I learned about the 2 officers in Washington who looked at a map of Korea, and knowing nothing about the culture or people, or ever have been there, just divided it up based off of a neat latitude placement on the map while in their office in Washington, and knew nothing to do with rivers, families, or natural separation of land.  The upper half was under Russia’s protection, the lower half under US protection.  It’s like Germany is still split.  This is our modern day Berlin Wall.

So it’s not exactly a light-hearted read.  It is sobering, but sobering things are often necessary.  I have no wish to live in a bubble, oblivious to what is going on around the world.  I can already feel my mind opening up some more.

Linking up with Ginny’s Yarn Along.