reading

The train is where I write most of my posts: in my head while the scenery whizzes. Recently I haven’t been thinking or looking out the window and consequently no new posts have been constructed. I have been reading. Leaving the current world behind, I enter one far away in time, space, and essence.

Long ago, in response to a catalyst I can’t remember, I bought and read East of New York, West of Kabul which remains one of the best books I’ve ever known. A seed was planted, one of interest and wonder about the subject. I’m watering the seed now with borrowed books from the library (I love the library!) I finished Kabul Beauty School and am currently midway through An Unexpected Light. I’m pretty sure they’re both overdue :] The first takes place in 2003 after the Taliban were dethroned and the thick verbose Unexpected Light takes place before the Taliban but after the Russians withdrew. The two books present an interesting contrast with snapshots of one country in different times. But they also provide a gender contrast. The book written by a woman gives us the world of women and the book written by a man gives us the world of men. Aside from the family unit, these worlds do not collide. Two different authors, two different decades but the divide remains the same.

As I discover the history of this land rich in beauty, culture, and struggle, I’m fascinated by a legacy that never reached the future. The ethnic and gender divide was not so sharp as it is now. [though there is always struggle in every land between tradition and non-tradition] In the 1960’s, before the Russians ravaged the land girls could wear nail polish, be educated, interact (veiled not burqa’d) with men, etc. People helped each out regardless of ethnicity. There was a unity and progression from the grassroots that existed…until Russian trampled the hell out of it and we left them high and dry. Idealogy was lost when several generations were killed, unable to pass along to their children the legacy of their heritage.

What have you been reading lately?