This And That

The wind is howling outside.  I love the snow!  I love hearing the wind and knowng that my Great Big God is in control of it.  It's really just a tiny example of the HUGE power He has!  I like knowing He's in control and still bigger than the wind.  Most would smack me for saying this, but I wish there were more snow coming down as the wind swirls around, making my windows shudder a bit.  My little brother lives in Virginia.  I live in Indiana.  It's crazy that their snowfall this year has been much more than ours.  I'm jealous!  For now, I'll just sit inside in the warmth, writing a bit of randomness. 

I frequenty say this on here, but life seems busy lately.  I guess it's good that I am able to take notice of it and attempt to take measure to focus where I need to and take time to rest and recharge.  Even though I've been busy lately, I'm feeling a little charged about school.  I have not made any firm decisions, but I'm thinking pretty seriously about grad school.  I've said for a long time that I'd like to go back to school, but was not sure what for.  I think I may have found something appealing.  Nursing/Healthcare informatics.  It's a blending of computer geek and nurse to boil it down to the simplest description.  I also enjoy teaching.  The thing I think makes this appealing is that I could have many job opportunities with informatics, but it would also likely afford me the option of teaching as well if I have my Master's.  I'm not sure where it will all lead, but it's an exciting prospect! 

In January I read a couple books that made me think a lot about perspective.  I think as humans, maybe even moreso as Americans, we find it very easy to live life in our own little bubble, not really aware of what's going on around us or where people are coming from.  We can try.  I'm not saying that we always fail, but it's not such an easy task to put yourself in the shoes of another.  The two books were Charleston by John Jakes and Eyes at the Window by Evie Yoder Miller.  Miller just happens to be the mother of my freshman roommate in college.  My book club picked that book for this month.  Both books cover quite a span of history.  Charleston begins in the early days of the American Revolution and concludes several years after the Civil War, the bulk of the story involves the years leading up to and including the Civil War.  Eyes At The Window is about the murder of an Amish baby that occurs in 1810, but the saga drags on for 50 years before the identity of the killer is revealed. 

As I read Eyes At the Window over Christmas and listened to Charleston on CD while driving it struck me that the two stories were both factually based, occuring roughly at the same time.  Other than the fact that they both take place in the US, the similarities stop there.  One takes place in Amish settlements in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the other in a southern coastal town.  The Amish strive to live a life of simplicity.  Charleston before the war was a city of lavish extravagance.  The Amish worked extremely hard for the simplicities of life - food, shelter, clothing.  The south was fighting in many ways to preserve their pampered life, which was made possible by the hard work of the slaves.  In fact, at one point in Eyes, it talks a bit about the fact that there were rumors of a war, but was so far away that most of the characters in the story had little grasp on the details of what was going on.  Ironically, there are some Confederate soldiers that spend some time in an Ohio prison near Erie, which means that the two stories intersected geographically to a degree.  The people in the two stories, though, had little idea of the existence of the others.  I could probably ramble a while with the compare/contrast theme.  It's funny that I hated those assignments in high school, and now I'm enough of a nerd that I'm doing it willingly.  It's interesting to me, though, and when you're updating your blog at 1am, that's what happens!