Jun 20 2008
Lorenzo and Winnalee
“It seems to me that after someone sweeps across your life like a red-hot flame, peeling back the shutters that sat over your heart and your mind and setting free your sweetest dreams or your worst nightmares, after things cool down you’ve got two choices. You can either slip back into your old self, your old life, tucking those things you were too scared to look at back into hiding, or you can keep those parts of yourself out until you get so used to them that they don’t scare you anymore and they just become a part of who you are.”That is the voice of narrator “Button” in Sandra Kring’s novel, The Book of Bright Ideas. An old beat-up copy of it was handed to me by my aunt a couple days ago. She said she had read it for a book club, and would need to give it back eventually, but that she would like me to read it. It’s a really fast, easy read, perfect summer material, that centers on a summer in the lives of Button and her new and unexpected best friend, Winnalee, who hit town like a whirlwind with her much older sister. Button has been raised in a cold and quiet house, although well-loved by her nearby aunt and uncle. Winnalee’s life has been chaotic and haphazard, but anything but cold. The two nine-year-olds come together over dress-up clothes and outdoor adventures, and collaborate on adding to Winnalee’s Book of Bright Ideas. The first one Winnalee shares with Button is: “Bright Idea #17. If you don’t give your ma a hug before you go to school because you’re mad at her for not letting you wear your good dress, she might die while you’re at recess. Then you ain’t going to be able to give her that hug ever.” It turns out to be a complicated few weeks.SO. I finished Freedomland, although it was a meatier read than anything I’ve read in awhile. I liked it, but I still find his writing a little too dense, having to go back and reread paragraphs to keep track of all the characters and their goings-on. Price writes effectively about the Projects and the complexity of being in, around and/or from them.My latest curiosity is about a religious cult called The Family or The Children of God (among other things). I first learned of it from an MSNBC documentary called Cult Killer. The documentary focused on Ricky Rodriguez, a young man who had been raised to be a prophet, but who never took to the role. Despite being “second in line” he left the cult and attempted to have a new and separate life. Unfortunately, he could not escape the horrible abuse of the past and was consumed by guilt for the children left behind. Eventually he decided that the only way to make things right was to kill his mother (the then-leader of the group)–to “cut off the head, so the body will die,”– before killing himself. He also intended his actions to bring attention to the cult and it’s sexually, psychologically, emotionally, and even physically abusive practices. He created a video tape of his last hours that was later released to the press and formed the basis for the MSNBC report. After watching the show, I went online to look for books on the Children of God. The best reviews went to Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge, by Don Lattin (available in paperback this September) and Not Without My Sister a memoir written by three female former members. Jesus Freaks was a fast, but very balanced and informative read. Lattin is a journalist who covered new religion for a major San Francisco newspaper for years, as well as as a freelancer for other publications, so his book is well-researched and less sensational than it might have been in the hands of a different author. His book also uses Ricky Rodriguez’s unravelling as a central storyline. Although the group denies encouraging sex with and between children, there is persuasive evidence to the contrary, including inside publications depicting and instructing in such practices. Ricky and the woman raised as his sister, Davida, were routinely “loved up” by adults, and videos of young girls doing seductive dances were routinely requested by the original leader, David Berg, who died in 1994. Another disturbing tactic used by the group is “flirty fishing,” whereby women would go into clubs and bars and recruit men by offering them sex. They are known as “Harlots for Jesus,” I believe. Branches of The Family still exist all over the world. After a brief interlude to read The Book of Bright Ideas I plan to jump back into cult life with the second book. More later.
