What's with Rau?

The desire sometimes comes upon me to take up verbification, and I will for some days employ myself in making up words. Yesterday was one of those days. (This is a good thing for my language, which would otherwise get very little attention right now.) Yesterday afternoon I was sitting outside with my thoughts on words and my eyes on a brilliant sunset when a very good word was presented to me: "rausta," which is a bright, fiery orange. If you have knowledge of Tolkien's languages you might recognize the similarity this word bears to some of his Quenya, and if you've followed this blog much you know that I enjoy his languages--the elvish ones in particular. Therefore I am always concerned that I may be subconciously copying him, so this word--"rausta"--I checked in my book of Tolkien's elvish etymologies. My word was not a direct copy, but I noticed some interesting similarities. Quenya has the word "rauta," which originally meant "copper" (though he later changed it to "metal"), and Sindarin has the word "raw," which is "lion". I also remembered another of my own words--"rautho," battle--and English words such as "row" and "rousing" that all seem similar. Rausta, rautho, rauta, raw, row, rousing; fiery orange, battle, copper, lion, row, rousing. They're all rousing, sometimes fierce, and seem to agree that a tawny copper/orange is the right color. The really surprising thing is that the agreement carries through several languages and not one but two verbificators. So I want to know, what's with rau?

Update: I've checked our Latin and Spanish dictionaries too. Latin "raudus" is "a peice of bronze" or "a copper coin" (hence perhaps Tolkien's original meaning for "rauta"?) and Spanish has "raudo" which means "rapid, impetuous".

Note on pronunciation: In my language, in Tolkien's, and in Latin and Spanish, "au" is pronounced like the "ow" in "now". (Thus "Sauron" is the "sour one". Yes, I know, sorry.) In Sindarin, "raw" would sound very much like English "row".

Mother's TREK - Mar 13

Amy at Dandelion Seeds is calling for a day to remember Missey's devotion to her family by spending Monday, Mar 13 with our children. You can read more here and here.

We took the whole week off last week for a project (but, as it turned out, we had sick kids anyway) and we can't take another whole day off. But we'll do what we can.

Maria Montessori - Her Life and Work

I finally finished reading the book about Montessori; there's a series of posts about that starting here.

There are over 20 posts, but each one is linked to the next one, so if you start at the beginning, you can continue to click "next" to get through all of them. They're longish, but are my narrations as I read the book interspersed with my own thoughts from a Charlotte Mason perspective as I read Montessori's concepts and practices.

There's also a letter that Charlotte Mason wrote to the editor of her newspaper sharing her own thoughts on the Montessori method. I rewrote the entire letter in modern English so I could understand more fully what CM was saying about Montessori, and I posted it as well. It's linked from the first posts.

Flowers

Yes, I think Spring is finally on its way.

The Difference Between Boys and Girls

When my boys were little, I was very careful not to let them watch violence on TV and not to buy them toy guns and swords. But everyone was right - whatever they had became a gun or sword anyway. The vacuum cleaner hose, pencils, straws, the toy electric drill. One of my sons used to bite his sandwiches and cheese slices into gun shapes and shoot them.

Miss M doesn't do that. Since she has older brothers, she's seen things in movies that her brothers never would have been allowed to see. Here's the kind of thing she does with a piece of vacuum cleaner hose. When she has a straw or fork, she cuddles it and pretends to mother it. When she has two straws or forks, she stands them up and starts imaginary conversations between them. She picks up bread crusts and makes them talk to each other. One of her brothers left his cardboard shield out. It's about as big as she is! She's cuddling it on her lap and telling me, "He's crying because the kitty scratched him." LOL!

What *Is* That Book?

As Pride and Prejudice opens, Lizzie is walking along reading the end of a book. Tim and I wondered what she was reading. We paused, enlarged the picture, wrote down what words we could make out, and did a search online.

Nothing.

Tim got an idea. "Wouldn't it be funny..." he said. And he looked, and he was right! She's reading Pride and Prejudice! LOL!

They changed the Gardiner's name to "their relatives" and "Derbyshire" to Wiltshire" or something, but she's reading the end of the very book she's acting out!

Pride and Prejudice

It feels really strange posting after my last post. I seem to be having trouble moving on and getting back to business as usual. But I know I need to. So I'm going to take a deep breath and just post.

This isn't a post about the movie. I've been reading Pride and Prejudice with Miss Roxie and Ginger. This is sort of a confession. I'm not really enjoying the book. I love the movie (both of them). But for some reason, when I read it myself, I miss all the subtle humor and nuances. Even though I know what's going on, I know almost every line from watching the A&E movie so many times, it somehow seems flat on a printed page. But I found it read aloud online at LibriVox. The reader isn't especially animated, yet she stops and pauses in all the right places so the humor isn't lost - and I'm enjoying it much more. So I'll be listening to it on audiobook.

We found a P.G. Wodehouse there, too. We've been meaning to see what all the fuss is about, and, since Tim is under the weather, this seems like a good time to find out, so we're listening to P Smith in the City right now. I've been up and down, tending to Miss M, getting dinner, so I'm missing a lot, but Tim is laid up on the couch and seems to be enjoying it.

Sad News

I just found out that a fellow homeschooler who I knew from the Ambleside Online list, passed away after an emergency C-section yesterday. The baby is fine, but Missey leaves behind five children 11 and under. On Mar 1, Missey "went in to get her stress test that she's been getting every 2 weeks. The test showed that she was losing amniotic fluid and that she had lost enough of it for it to be alarming. That's when they decided to go ahead and take the baby. After they lifted the baby from her body, some of the amniotic fluid got into her blood stream and caused a blood clot, which is what caused her death. She never came out of surgery. Her mil said that this only happens 1 in 200,000." Missey and her husband had chosen a name for the baby, but the baby has been named Melissa Kate after her mother. I met her at the AO conference this summer; she and heroldest daughter both wrote comments about the conference. Some people are leaving comments for her family on her blog.

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Another Update

Homeschoolblogger has started a memorial blog as a tribute to Missey, which they'll be updating throughout the day. There's a nice picture and some memories of her from friends who knew her. The PO Box address to send cards to the family is at the top of that blog.

Loa, the co-moderator of Missey's Beechick email list, posted this:
"Her family is fine with the information being distributed. They are so touched by the outpouring of love from everyone and are amazed by the sheer volume of people that have voiced their sorrow in the homeschooling community."

Missey's blog is still up and lots and lots of people are reading it and being encouraged at what a blessing she was to her family. Because Missey was careful about what she said in the public forum of blogging, her blog serves as a testament to the love she had for her family and a wonderful memorial for her family. The Headmistress at The Common Room reminds us to be careful what we blog about our families if we want our own blogs to be something that will bring our families joy.

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Update:

This is from Loa, the co-moderator of the Ruth Beechick email list Missey started five years ago.

"For those who want to make financial donations, it would be greatly appreciated by the family. We have set up a memorial fund at Paypal. http://www.mamakay.com/misseygrayfund.html
They did not have life insurance for Missey and I know this would be a blessing to help cover the funeral and other expenses. Krystal [who set up the fund] is a long time friend of Missey's and mine and I can assure you that each and every penny will reach Missey's family. Many have also asked for an address to send cards. We are setting up a P.O. Box for this tomorrow and will give you that information as soon as it comes available. A member of Missey's local homeschool group is taking care of this and mail will be sent in care of her. More details on this Friday."

Pattycake, who has been posting updates, posted a copy of her obituary.

Just a few of the many other bloggers who have been posting for and about Missey:
Dawn
MamaLion at Shadybrook Acres
Beth
Miss Roxie
The Common Room
Athena in a Minivan
HowGreataDebtor in Rivendell, Wis
Ann V. at ChoosingHome
Stay-at-Home Christian Mom
Loni
Sprittibee
Heather at Mom2Mom Connection
Melissa Markham
Kim at Living a Full Life
Susan at ByGrace
Maureen Wittmann
Susie-Q&A

This Month's Books - February 2006

Smith of Wootton Major by J.R.R. Tolkien
A short, thoughtful tale about the gift of fantasy. That is, it's actually about Smith and his excursions into Faerie, but on another level it is "about" (more like Latin "de") the gift of fantasy, or faerie, or myth, or whatever you want to call it.

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
A book I've read many times and is still very good. I think it ought to be mandatory reading for Western humanity in general.

Prince of Annwn and The Children of Llyr by Evangeline Walton
These are the first two books of a four book series called the Mabinogion Tetralogy. They are a retelling of the Mabinogi as fantasy novels and are therefore set in ancient Wales. The writing is pretty good and the stories are interesting. They are written from a decidedly pagan point of view which has good, humane Mother gods in conflict with harsh alien Father gods (including, apparently, Christianity). There is at least one spiritual realm, and the suggestion of many, each having its own incarnations of the gods. Interesting, though obviously anti-Christian. But I can't recommend the books, unfortunately--and I did not finish the second--because they contain a good deal of objectionable content, probably worthy of an R rating.

That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
The third part of Lewis's Space Trilogy (the others being Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra) and the only book that takes place solely on Earth. I think this is the third time I've read this book (this time with my mom). Every time I finish it I am forced to say "amazing!" Who else but Lewis could combine angels and demons, a scheme for world domination, and Arthurian legend with two purposely bland protagonists and an unorthodox structure, and include a study of the desire for the "inner ring" and most of his own worldview to boot? Of course this means that it's impossible to take everything in at the first reading. Be warned, too, that it starts slowly and can be confusing at first, and there is at least one chapter near the end with potentially disturbing violence. Still highly recommended. (It can be read on its own, but it's better to read the first two books in the series first. And you really should read them anyways.)

Libertarianism is Anti-Capitalist?

Posted by Brad Warbiany, whose blog is here
in response to a post on David Friedman's blog

"Ahh, The Dispossessed. That brings up an interesting point. One interesting think about that book, as well as much of Heinlein's work (such as The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress), seems to be very negative towards the idea of a libertarian (or anti-capitalist) society ever actually existing."

My question: I thought Capitalism was the foundation and engine of Libertarianism? What would Libertarianism look like without Capitalism?

Yes, I know I could ask my question on one of their blogs, but my question isn't related to the post (it was about the Narnia movie, of all things!), and I'd need the answer in small words and short sentences because, to be honest, I know little about politics and next to nothing about economic theory. The answer is probably so obvious as to insult their intelligence by asking, and I may never read either The Dispossessed or anything else by Heinlein. What to do? So I'm throwing the question out into the dark hole of cyberspace.