TJ Hirst

My daughter and I just finished reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, which is the June Book Selection for the Bodacious Bloggity Book Club at Marathon Bird. Today EH and I each share our impressions for the discussion.

Every step in life opens into a future of uncertainty. Some of the experiences brighten us with pleasure, others hurl horrific happenings toward us and some seem to have no consequence beyond that day. The future of Corrie ten Boom’s world, like all of ours, was unknown. Yet, in her youth and early adulthood the daily faith of her family prepared her to meet the destructive forces of World War II when they reached her country and her own family with compassion and courage.

One of my favorite examples is of her wise father’s response to Corrie’s questions about sex. They were riding the train. He set his heavy bag in front of her and asked her to carry it off the train. When she said she couldn’t, he taught her this parallel truth. He said,

It would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.

Corrie’s father is not only giving an appropriate answer to his child but teaching her a pattern of faith. He is saying, “trust me with your unknown questions and fears,” just as she later applies that pattern to faith in God during her loneliest and most disheartening moments.

Now that my own daughter is “older and stronger” to bear some of the weight of these historical events, I invited her to share this book club discussion with me. She said:

The Hiding Place, the story of Corrie ten Boom, is a remarkable one. Through her many struggles of hiding Jews in her family home, she learns from her sister how to have faith in God. After being sent to Ravensbruck and being shown where they were to sleep, a smelly, straw-covered platform covered in fleas, occupied by seven other women, almost the first thing they did was pray. Not in sorrow, asking to get out of their situation, but thanks. Thanks for everything, including the fleas.

As Corrie remarked to her sister, “Betsie, there’s no way even God can make me grateful for a flea.”

Her reply was profound. “‘Give thanks in all circumstances,’” she quoted. “It doesn’t say, ‘in pleasant circumstances.’ Fleas are part of this place where God has put us.” When, during their daily Bible studies with the other women in the barracks, they realize that their area is rarely patrolled, Betsie finds out that it is because of all the fleas that the guards avoid the place.

Other miracles abound as Corrie’s faith grows. The vitamin oil that she snuck in for her sister continued to produce oil, even after Betsie had passed it around to so many others. When they received vitamins from a friend who worked in the hospital in the camp, the oil stopped coming out.

I read the story of Anne Frank in school, and even though I knew it had actually happened, it didn’t seem as real to me. Then I read this book, and it seemed real. It took me a little while to figure out why. Her faith, so similar to my own, allowed me to compare my life to Corrie’s.

I learned from Corrie’s story, like my daughter, by comparing it to my own life. Despite the crimes committed against her, her sister and many others, she continued to identify and strive to correct her personal weaknesses like selfishness. Ironically, her tragic circumstances of the concentration camp magnified her understanding of the biblical account of the apostle Paul’s own “thorn in the flesh.” Through that comparison she learned this truth:

The real sin I had been committing was not that of inching toward the center of the platoon because I was cold. The real sin lay in thinking that any power to help and transform came from me. Of course it was not my wholeness, but Christ’s that made the difference.

Corrie’s faith prepared her. Her adversity transformed her. That purifying process took place not in an idyllic setting but one of the most cruel. Most of our lives are not idyllic nor horrid but the reality of them presses upon us the same opportunities to meet them with faith to live and love.

I’m a movie talker. I am also a movie writer—no, not a screenwriter, a movie viewer who writes the good lines in my little notebook. But when my family took me to see Prince Caspian in an actual theater for my birthday, I forgot my notebook and didn’t talk at all!

Now, as I write, I realize why I talk and write in the midst of an expereince—these verbal tools sear the impressions in my mind in the moment before they are lost. That’s the moment when my creative thought process reacts and processes the story and how it relates to life. Nonetheless, my total absorption in this movie was not lost after its end nor was the ensuing discussion diminished.

The second movie in the Narnia Chronicles stepped into an even deeper symbolic understanding of what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Aslan is the fictional lion that leads the land of Narnia as a Christ-figure.

In the conclusion of the first movie, the four kings and queens of Narnia return to England for a year, but time continues in Narnia, bringing forth a new generation of dangers and a new leader, Prince Caspian.

When Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are called back to help, they discover a changed land where Aslan does not seem to exist. This time they know who they are and their capacity to lead. However, even for leaders, change requires humility to reach their potential. While Edmund is the one humbled by sin in the last movie, this time, Peter is the one to learn this lesson.

Pride is a painful lesson. Since we cannot view ourselves from the outside, pride is difficult to distinguish and overcome. The young knight Peter develops his potential and then feels capable to serve. As king he moves forward according to his best plans. But in carrying out his plans, Peter still cannot lead on his own. The results show his need for Aslan.

When I face a situation when pride blinds my own eyes, I tend to depend upon what I’ve known from the past rather than looking beyond with faith. For me, I always ask for that help from Christ first, but then I begin a process of talking it out with myself and trusted friends to awaken in me the solutions I can internalize. However, like Peter, if I get scared that the solution from Christ might not come in time, my talking may turn into a worried effort to storm the castle on my own. Then, in the midst of rushing toward the desired outcome, I am surprised by the castle gates that block my way and try to fight at those barriers.

How much I must become like the little child Lucy who can still see Aslan and perseveres toward him rather than toward the enemy.

Discovery filled my twenties. The process of looking for and trying new recipes, new decor and design, new parenting advice, new clothing trends and new beauty tips filled me with new ideas and eagerness. Toward the end of that decade, the new needed to fade so I could concentrate on following through on all I had introduced.

Doing filled the first phase of my thirties. Not reading parenting books with baby number three left me time to parent. We actually built our “dream home” from my design file and threw away any goals for perfection in the process. I quit clipping recipes and started creating my own with what I had on hand. As the end of this decade draws closer, I wonder about the next.

Will I return to discovery? I love learning and applying it, but I am too old to just follow a trend for a trend’s sake. I inch toward this new season, eager to not just regress and redo, but to discover at a deeper level, adding carefully to what I’ve chosen. And I stand in my well-equipped kitchen considering how to combine experience and enthusiasm into the mixture that will follow.

Ham Salad Puff
Taste of Home Cookbook

1 cup water
½ cup butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1-1½ cups fully cooked ham
2 celery ribs, chopped
½ cup chopped green pepper
½ cup sliced green onions
½ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon dill weed
lettuce leaves

1. In a large saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil. Add flour and salt all at once, stirring until a smooth ball forms. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Continue beating until mixture is smooth and shiny.

2. Spread dough onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9-inch pie plate. Bake at 400° for 30-35 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Prick the puff with a fork. Cool on a wire rack.

3. In a bowl, combine the ham, celery, green peppers, onions, mayonnaise, dill. Line puff with lettuce; fill with ham mixture. Yield: 4-6 servings.

The discussion of the May Selection for the Bodacious Bloggity Book Club is starting. I’m a day early with my post, but I’ve already planned my Sunday post on another topic. After you’ve read my review of Watership Down by Richard Adams and you want to follow the discussion, visit Marathon Bird on May 25 and check out the other links.

First of all, I know there is a word for animals that are given human characteristics—yes, I am right, anthropomorphism. I typically detest that sort of book or movie and feel it is the bane of parenthood to be subjected to them. But, I took a chance by remaining open to suggestion, and It was worth it.

I am not sure if this is a true example of anthropomorphism or just a creative interpretation of how a warren of rabbits may actually live. Adams was not overtly saying, “Here is a human disguised as a rabbit.” And that is why I think this book was not only tolerable but struck me with great curiosity.

Whatever the author’s intended approach or form, I recognized numerous examples that showed similarities between the personalities of the rabbit characters and human personalities.

Identifying each rabbit’s personality and then observing how it fit into the group showed a theme of governance and individual agency. Leadership that allows for individual ownership and participation by making choices and acting upon responsibility increases the growth and survival of the whole group. On the other hand, dependence upon others takes away the opportunity and the capacity to make decisions and stifles growth.

The leader of the main group of rabbits in this story follows the first philosophy of leadership as they encounter the other types of leaders and groups. As such a leader, he even extends freedom to other animals, recognizing and using their traits in exchange for protection or service. Hazel, who becomes the Chief Rabbit of stragglers escaping a doomed warren, said, “If anyone finds an animal or bird that isn’t an enemy, in need of help, for goodness sake, don’t miss the opportunity. That would be like leaving carrots to rot in the ground.”

When they come across some hutch rabbits on a farm, they learn quickly that captivity destroys not only the use of agency to make choices but diminishes the ability to develop the reasoning to do so. Describing some hutch rabbits that the wild rabbits turned loose, “They did not know how to make up their minds. It was not within their capacity to take a decision and act on it. These rabbits had never had to act to save their lives or even find a meal.” Self-reliance encourages long-term survival.

Of all the characters, my two favorite personalities are Fiver and Big Wig.

As a sensitive soul myself, I adore Fiver, the small rabbit who can sense danger or wrong choices. He is the one who insisted on leaving the doomed warren in the first place. At first, the others doubt his ability to see and listen to the signs around them, but he has a gift that through several experiences is proved invaluable.

Big Wig is a tough but smart fighter who does not shirk from a difficult task. About him Hazel predicted in the beginning, “He was certainly no coward, but he was likely to remain steady as long as he could see his way clear and be sure what to do. To him, perplexity was worse than danger.” These were true statements, but Big Wig learned to not only face danger but to also make decisions in the midst of it.

These characters and all of the others are leaders in one way or another as they use and develop their particular gifts to benefit all. Their struggles to create a warren of their own, protect it against their enemies and help it flourish with buck, does and kittens is an apt analogy for our own life experience as families, communities and nations.

I am surprised that I liked it and admitted that to my daughter’s 3rd grade teacher who saw me carrying it at a classroom performance. She said, “I used it as a read-aloud with my kids—my own kids at home, not my classroom students.”

Intrigued, she gave me an idea of how to extend my May Reading Challenge in a summer read-aloud of Watership Down with my children.

The word, juxtaposition, befuddles me. On the AP English test for college credit in high school, I was to explain the juxtaposition of two ideas in a literary work. I flubbed it. Ever since, using that word makes me self-conscious.

Ironically, I love it’s meaning, which is to place side-by-side, especially for comparison or contrast. In fact, most of my writing is juxtaposition because that is how I view life. Over the weekend I watched two movies—one night, Becoming Jane, and Ironman the next night. The contrast seems as clear as female and male. But when they are juxtaposed, the packaging fades and similarities stand out.

I often go into a Jane Austen movie adaptation expecting a lighthearted feminine romance. This is how they often appear to be marketed by the movie industry seeking women’s dollars. But that is never how these “chick flicks” play out. From under the flouncing gowns comes the crux of larger matters, deeper matters, which are the hallmark of Austen’s hand. Likewise, the movie that tells her history couldn’t be called just a romance in that way either.

Hers is a story of a woman developing her talent to write while developing as a woman. That struggle enhances her writing in the long run, even as poverty and situation complicate it. Influences encourage her to define womanhood as shallow, “Flirting is a woman’s trade, one must keep in practice” as one woman companion supposes. Or drudgery—from which her mother wants to save her. Or competitive, “If you wish to be the equal of a masculine writer, experience is vital. Your horizons must be widened. ” This challenge comes from her new acquaintance, Thomas LeFroy. Their ensuing relationship does widen her horizons, but her difficult and surprising choices along the way provide depth to her character and the fictional ones she will create.

A busy schedule kept my husband from seeing Ironman in a late-night screening with “the guys”, so we went for date night. The throngs of teenage boys surrounding us in the theater and the previews told me I was in the wrong demographic for this movie. True to expectation, loud music, big guns, and gratuitous sex reeled the men in.

After analyzing the chick flick, I thought I would get his thoughts on the guy movie. Here was his review: Thoroughly entertaining.

But I know my husband, and I know he lives a life beyond that stuff, so I knew there was more. Unlike Becoming Jane, in which the falsity must first be stripped off to reveal her true nature, Ironman clothes the man to build him up. Whichever process takes us to that end result finds us standing the same in the end.

Even though we may not admit it, we don’t mind whose movie choice brings us to that point. My husband wrote this to the newlywed couple to whom we gave a portable DVD player as a wedding gift: To the groom, Watch the chick flicks with her. To the bride, Let him pick a guy movie once in a while.