Freedom - Jonathan Franzen

I finished reading a novel for the first time in years. I read Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections about a year ago, and Freedom was his next effort. The combination of family dynamics mixed with contemporaneous political and social issues is where Franzen has staked out a brilliant and illuminating home turf.

In Freedom , he puts a Minnesota family under the microscope, bouncing for a time into the 1970s, but spending most of the time in the late 90s and the first decade of the 2000s. Patty Berglund is the main protagonist - and the "author" of a significant section of the book - an athletic woman who is committed to her family but unclear about some major issues in her life.

She is married to Walter Berglund - a native Minnesotan who met Patty at Univ of Minnesota and who is characterized by his "niceness". Walter is a lawyer who worked for 3M - ending up eventually in outreach and philanthropy due to his commitment to causes. He left 3M to become a development officer for the Nature Conservancy, allowing him to focus his commitment to nature on a full-time basis. `

Of all the interesting characters, I resonate most with Walter so would like to focus on his development in a couple of posts.

Energy, Passion, Drive, Determination

In a couple of articles over the weekend I saw references to passion. In a thoughtful tribute to his friend, Ian McEwan writes of the recently deceased Christopher Hitchens "His unworldly fluency never deserted him, his commitment was passionate, and he never deserted his trade."

I'm a relatively reserved guy, so in some settings I can come across as a bit passive. It's interesting, first of all, that passive and passion both come from words meaning "to suffer or endure."

What I'd like to do here is capture observations of energy, passion, determination, drive,... As I see it or read about it or feel it or think about it, I hope that I can record some useful insights.

In Basel for Christmas

It's December now and the first snow of the season is on the ground. A lovely snow is falling now. The kids are out of school and we're getting ready for Christmas. Nancy has sent out our Christmas cards all over the world. We bought The Tree from a local farm and it is up and decorated now. Tara is feverishly cutting out paper chains, snowflakes, and all manner of decorations to cover her room in Christmas spirit. We've been to the Basel Christmas markets in Barfusserplatz and Munsterplatz. It's a wonderful way to celebrate

Switzerland is a beautiful country and is successfully stretching us out of our comfort zones. But for this holiday season we are not planning too many big trips or challenging objectives. Just enjoying the sights, sounds, smells (and a little stress) of the holidays. Well maybe we'll take a quick trip to Paris...

Here's some nice music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T42ieABEY-A

Now we need to pick up a couple of gifts...