The Novelties

I hate to keep talking about the weather, but this is much needed intro information. About a month ago, it was negative 30 degrees outside for a week straight. The locals keep pointing out that it has been an exceptionally mild winter for Calgary, and that having only one week with those insanely cold temperatures was a blessing. I'll take that blessing!

About 3 days of hunkering down in Fort Rutstein, I was sinking faster into a state of depression than I could say the words "need interaction with others." We had to go out twice on the coldest days, for appointments, a good thing because it got us to go out despite the cold. But Oh Emm Geee. It was like nothing I have ever experienced before. As I ran like a lunatic with the double stroller from the car to the building, Rena was crying because I draped a blanket over her and Tehilla was just quiet. (Also not a good sign.) We made it okay, but being exposed to such cold temperatures for even 2 minutes was enough to send the colder-than-your-freezer-air right through you.

By the next time I went out, it did not feel as bad, but I still was more than glad to stay home  The problem is staying home in the comforts of a heated home is good for staying warm, but that's about it. A whole week of not getting together with any outsiders (Doctors don't really count.) was obviously not good for my emotional health.

Anyway, point of the story is that all of a sudden, all the challenges about living in Calgary suddenly pushed their way up to the front row in my head, shouting, look at us! I was feelin the blues.

(This was the week I joined Facebook.)

Like all crises though, this gave me a chance to focus on the negative stuff for a bit, and made me face mediocrity head-on, and try to come up with good solutions for feeling isolated.

Rochella wins the prize for giving me the best idea ever. "Maybe you can start a book club!" she said while trying to help me brainstorm.  Oooh book club, now we're talking. There is already a book club that the sisterhood has, and I don't want to step on anyone else's territory I thought. But then again, the Shul bookclub isn't really a group of women my age...

My fingers couldn't type fast enough, and before long I was in the throws of emailing, researching books, and getting together this new group that would be reading the bestseller The Help. I got about 4 equally enthusiastic responses and some maybes, but before long, you could see the yellow book peeking out of people's purses at The Science Fair, tucked under their arms.  We couldn't read fast enough.

Last night was our first meeting. It was better than I could have imagined. There was an amazing dynamic there. Stimulating and important topics were discussed, everyone had thoughtful and interesting observations to share. There were lots of tangents (I think we covered just about every topic you could possibly think of!) but we kept willfully returning to my little list of go-around questions about the book. One of the other members hosted in her house and the food was delectable. We played a little game at the end where everyone tried to come up with a creative name for our group, and the winner, whose idea was voted as best title, would get a $5 gift card to Starbucks. The prize went to the hostess whose title "The Novelties" could not have been better.

Thank you Rochella, Thank you Hashem, and thank you ladies of Novelty. You have invigorated my soul, gave me new energy. I am thirsting for the next one.

Below are my questions, in case you read The Help (or watched it) and want to see what you think! I would LOVE to read your comments to any of the questions below if you are interested!

1. Who was your favorite character and why?

2. Segregation was not that long ago. In the book, you can see clearly how powerful social norms are. Even though the formal and cultural laws of segregation seem mind-boggling nowadays, there was a time when it was considered acceptable to so many.  How is it that people come to dehumanize other groups of people? How does this happen?

3. Stuart--(Skeeter's boyfriend) Their relationship fell apart because Stuart could not handle who Skeeter really was and what she was doing. Were you relieved or disappointed the way it turned out with the two of them?

4. Constantine--what do you think the purpose of this character was? What did her story do for the message of the book?

5. The Benefit-- The whole book is written in first person accounts from three different women. This chapter was written in the third person, like a bird's eye view of life in Jackson. What purpose did writing it that way serve?

6. The questions we did not get to-- What do you think the white women in the story would be doing if they lived nowadays? What about Skeeter? Do you think she had a hard time fitting into societal norms in general, or was she just ahead of her time and just could not be part of the segregationist era that she found herself in?

7. How would you rate the book 1-5?

Thanks for reading!
Love, Tzirel