History Lesson

I've been doing lots of reading and writing recently. In my reading I'm into a book by Winston Churchill, the second volume of a series about the history of England. The other three volumes I do not have, once all four volumes were my parents, who had a lot of books, I remember them being around when I was young. Starting in volume two, or mid-stream, I'm finding that Churchill refers back to the first volume and is writing assuming the reader knows what he's already said.

I really don't remember much from history in school (about the English or otherwise), so that's no help. What is some help is some more recent reading and movie watching. Last year I read a book set in England that covered the period just before 1688 where Churchill's volume 2 begins. I also remember some things that I picked up from some movies, one in particular being Restoration.

The movie depicts a difficult period in England's history. In the years 1665 and 1666, England suffered the ravages of a plague that killed 100,000 people , followed in September 1666, by a fire that destroyed much of London, but however helped to end the plague. (I just wikipedia'd the numbers and googled the movie.) The movie follows the life a of a doctor, played, I thought, brilliantly by Robert Downey, Jr. Eventually, the doctor is brought into the court of the king, Charles II. The story is long and involved and I won't go into it. I will say that I enjoyed the movie but it does depict lots of debauchery (which was germane to the period of history). The title Restoration is somewhat a play on words in that the period of history was called the Restoration, and the doctor experiences a restoration in his own life.

In the book I mentioned, a king was killed and then some other people were in power and they were oppressively religious people. There was something about the queens and I have such a bad memory!

The cover shows a woman wearing a very elaborate gown and pearls, I can't remember the title, I think it might have had the word pearl in it. (Yes, I did several searches and it took several minutes but I finally found it, the book's title is Circle of Pearls. I also refreshed my memory some about the book. I read some on Amazon. Remembering Julia's name, helped, then Julia and Christopher Wren.)

The story is about Julia, starting from her childhood, the member of a wealthy family that opposes the current government and must hide their true colors. Julia's family are wealthy and live on a large estate. In their home they have hidden a gown that belonged to queen Elizabeth. The elaborately made gown was given to Julia's grandmother by the queen and is mentioned throughout the book. Mainly, I think the gown signifies the repressive nature of their enemies who would destroy it if they found it. Such things are considered too worldly. Christopher Wren, a real person is a main character. I knew the name from somewhere, he was an architect, among other interests. The writer does a good job of weaving fiction into history. She includes lots of interesting details about things like embroidery and lace, things which interest me, (anything to do with textiles), but which may be not that interesting to everyone.

If I keep reading this history and historical stuff eventually maybe I'll be able to remember it better. Another book I read, some time ago, a book centered in Holland is somewhat relevant. It covered part of the period of history when Spain occupied Holland. Many people in Holland suffered greatly under the Spanish. I never remember even hearing about that, although it's possible I had just forgotten. The Protestant Reformation which began in Germany had spread to the Netherlands and they were fighting about religion. All of this does have to do with England's history. In 1688, there is a revolution in England that leads to William of Orange (from the Netherlands) becoming king of England.

I wanted to read more about Dutch history after reading that book but couldn't find anything. My memory of that book is rather vague already. I wouldn't mind rereading the book, if I can remember the name of it! I remember what the cover looked like. This was a library book. (Wow! I got lucky searching for this title which I thought would be really difficult. It was called The Sea Beggars, by Cecelia Holland. I found it with just 3 searches.)

So, my book I'm reading, vol. 2, of Churchill's History of England begins with William of Orange already established as king.

Postscript:
Okay, so I looked it up some more of the stuff I couldn't remember, and scanning several wikipedia articles I found out the following. The "king that was killed" was Charles I, beheaded for treason in 1649. Civil war had been fought (two civil wars, 1642-45 and 1648-49) between the royalists (also called Cavaliers) and the parliamentarians, (aka Roundheads). The Roundheads, "the other people in power who were religiously oppressive," were so called because there were many among their number who were puritans that kept their hair cut short. The term Roundhead was derogatory.

Charles I, was the son of James I of England. James followed Elizabeth I (who died without bearing children). Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII. Before Elizabeth reigned her half-brother, Edward VI, and then half-sister, Mary, I, reigned. ("The queens" that I mentioned).

England was briefly under the rule of Oliver Cromwell 1653-58, and then his son, Richard, 58-59, under the title Lord Protector. Before and after their rule, from 49-53 and 59-60 the country was under the rule of a Council of State. The monarchy was restored in 1660 with Charles' son, Charles II.

Whether the Parliamentarians, or Roundheads, were as oppressive as they are depicted in the book I don't know. It sounds like they were. After the civil wars the old allegiances still continued and the two groups were very at odds with each other, disagreeing on religious and political grounds. In the book, the Roundheads seize many of the estates of the royalists under some pretext I don't remember. I suppose that was based on real life.

I was trying to read wikipedia on The House of Orange. It's too complicated! Maybe I'll get back to that another time. I like the sound of the name, it makes me think of the color and the fruit. I wonder if the color has anything to do with the Irish orange. Yes, in Ireland, the color orange stands for Protestant, and comes from William of Orange. Green stands for Catholic. Google and Wikipedia to the rescue again.

Well, one thing leading to another, and although this only connects to anything I've been talking about by a hair, I include it. It's the Irish song, "The wearing of the green," one version of which follows:

O Paddy dear, an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground;
St. Patrick's Day no more we'll keep, his colour can't be seen,
For there's a cruel law agin the wearin' o' the Green.

I met wid Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand,
And he said, "How's dear ould Ireland, and how does she stand?"
She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen,
For they're hangin' men an' women there for the wearin' o' the Green.

Then since the colour we must wear is England's cruel red,
Sure Ireland's sons will ne'er forget the blood that they have shed,
You may take a shamrock from your hat and cast it on the sod,
It will take root and flourish there though underfoot it's trod.

When law can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow,
And when the leaves in summer-time their colour dare not show,
Then will I change the colour, too, I wear in my caubeen
But 'till that day, please God, I'll stick to wearin' o' the Green.

But if at last our colour should be torn from Ireland's heart,
Her sons with shame and sorrow from the dear old isle will part;
I've heard a whisper of a land that lies beyond the sea
Where rich and poor stand equal in the light of freedom's day.

O Erin, must we leave you driven by a tyrant's hand?
Must we ask a mother's blessing from a strange and distant land?
Where the cruel cross of England shall nevermore be seen,
And where, please God, we'll live and die still wearin' o' the green!


The land beyond the sea is America. A caubeen was a hat. People supporting revolution wore shamrocks in their hatbands.

The state of the economy and me

I'm liable to write just about anything in this blog.

Yesterday I attended an event in Chattanooga hosted by the local Moody Radio station. The event was called a "Town Hall Meeting" and featured Howard Dayton and Chuck Bentley of the Christian financial ministry called Crown Financial that has a radio show called MoneyLife.

The meeting was set up so that if people wanted to ask a question, they would raise their hands and then a lady would come and see what your question was and write down your name. When it was time to ask your question she would give you the mike. I already had in mind before I got to the meeting what I wanted to ask about.

I asked about the economy and the value of the dollar. I also had several less significant, perhaps even trivial questions, coming to mind that I might have asked. Later, during a commercial, they asked the audience members to introduce themselves. They started on my side of the room, and I was seated so that I was the second person to speak. I guess having been bold enough to ask my first question, I was bold enough to say something about myself. I said my name and said I am unemployed and haven't worked for a long while and I need to get a job. And that was how I ended up being offered the to do the career direct program as their guest. What a blessing!

When I was in college (30 years ago), I took a class in economics, and I did well in the class. I think I did well because during the summer I had read a book, I can't remember the name of the book, but it was one that I picked up after my Mom had read it. It was about economics and had gotten me thinking already about supply and demand, how the global dimensions of economics, things like that. So, the professor ended up inviting me to take part in an honors class for non-majors. I was one of - I think it was - five students in the class which was taught by a local businessman.

It was very interesting. There were several people in the class who were more talkative and able to put thoughts into words than I was. There was this one guy that I always liked having in my classes because he asked such good questions. He was in my astronomy, existentialism, and religion in American history classes. He just brought out the wonder in the astonomy class. I think I might have missed it if it weren't for his being the class. So anyway, somehow I managed to pass the class which was based largely on class participation. I remember that I did a written report on the car industry.

What I remember learning and thinking about in regards to the car business is the difficulties of planning for mass production. For car companies to make a profit, they have to correctly anticipate what consumers will want to buy in the future. By the time a car comes to market it may have been through several years of planning. Market conditions can change over few years time, so they have to try to project the future. And it takes a great deal of time and capital to design and produce a new model car. It also takes a good deal of capital to continue to produce cars. Not too long ago I read the autobiography of Lee Iacocca who was president of Ford and then went to Dodge as their president. He is probably fairly well known and recognized because he was in a bunch of commercials. His book is a good read. He writes in a way that is accessible to anybody and tell how he rose in the ranks of the car business.

So, one thing I am trying to do is figure out what my areas of talent are.

I know I have a hard time remembering details. I tend typically to remember the broad picture, maybe very generalized. I am not very impressed with my ability to reel off facts and explain stuff about stuff without saying "stuff". I so often can't think of the right terminology.

I occasionally listen to the PBS newshour program, and I noticed that I find it difficult to keep listening to people talk about stuff I don't already know about. How do news people stay caught up? I guess they know stuff already. Or they refresh their memories often by rereading about stuff. Maybe this is just something I could work on - the remembering and being about to explain things thing.

My major in college was religion and philosophy. I think I equally enjoyed both subjects. And I have a philosophical bent, meaning I'm not sure what. It's certainly not that I can tell anyone about philosophy. Maybe it's just that I think about ideas and principles. Since school I have kept reading and learning. I am more verbal than I used to be and I'm sure I am better at pulling my thoughts together and writing than I was when I was in college. But of course those English major types and those who were verbally proficient in college and have kept reading and writing are way ahead of me still.

I adore puzzles. People are probably wired to want to figure things out.