Literature – Page 2 – movingforwardslowly

Pippi Longstocking Pumpkin Sculpture!

(AP photo/Markus Schreiber) “Pumpkin sculpture depicting fictional Swedish book character Pippi Longstocking is displayed at Klaistow’s farm’s annual pumpkin festival, which this year celebrates ‘powerful women’.” It is near Berlin, Germany. See the link below .

https://apnews.com/article/germany-pumpkins-halloween-farm-festival-cb94e3a160a87a8041cbd23c78487f24

You should click on the link to see a fantastic pumpkin festival that has a 22 year history. They have several other sculptures that you should see of real-life women who were strong in a real life sense. I have never seen so many pumpkins in one place. Thank you to AP news for posting this story.

Pippi Longstocking books were enjoyed by me when I was a young girl. She was super naturally strong and this was depicted in the very first book where it shows her lifting her horse onto the porch of her home. She could overpower all men who tried to trick her or her friends. I will post a screenshot of the history of these books.

This AI summary was taken from a **Bing** search.

My own daughter, Laura, owns a few Pippi Longstocking movies.

I received a Pippi Longstocking book for Christmas when I was about 9 or 10. I have a picture to prove it. Unfortunately we cannot read which Pippi book it was. This picture is very old and of poor quality.

Sunday Reflection

My daughter likes to watch the Anne of Green Gables collection of movies based on the books by L. M. Montgomery. The picture I have featured here is from a Canadian government website. This house is a National Historic house based on the book. We visited this house on Prince Edward Island when my daughter was young. Her love of this story is still strong today.

Recently I overheard Anne ask Mirella if she can imagine being in the depths of despair. Mirella responded, "No I cannot. To despair is to turn your back on God." Hearing this got me to thinking about whether I agree with this.

Curiosity got me to thinking about other famous fictional characters' ideas about faith and belief in God. The Charles M. Schulz comic strip titled Peanuts came into my mind. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the whole gang are so famous that they have their own museum. https://schulzmuseum.org/
It is well documented that Charles M. Schulz, the creator of this iconic comic strip, did not shy away from including faith, spirituality, and theology in his comics. Here is one that I think is appropriate when thinking about Mirella Cuthbert's quote that is mentioned above.

I admire his open-mindedness and willingness to discuss religious beliefs. I think many people want to be considered “good” religious people. The trouble arises when we all have differing opinions about how “good” should be defined.

My personal opinion is that there are many roads that can lead you to God and salvation. Religions set-up their own system of beliefs and theories to point us in the direction they think we should follow. Reflection is all about considering your beliefs compared to other beliefs. This opens the door to modification if necessary and it can help foster a peaceful co-existence among us all.

(Today 8/09/25) I found the picture of my daughter in the carriage and my mom standing beside her. You can see the Green Gables house behind them. This picture was taken around 1995-1997.

Red Hats

I just finished reading Ursula K. Le Guin's book Voices. The priests in this book all wore red hats. They were called the Red Hats.

Coincidentally, I have been seeing a lot of red hats in catholic news these days.

The Red Hats in Le Guin's book were not kind men. I am not making any kind of comparison to the real cardinals wearing red hats and working together to pick a new pope in the Sistine Chapel.

Out of curiosity I did a quick search of catholic hats. I was surprised to find so many official hat names.

Don’t Quit

I was reminded today of the Middle School I attended in 1972-1973.
The most interesting things I remember about these years were the sludge test we had to do in science class,and my confrontation with a male student in band class. He was a trumpet player, and I played the timpani (aka a kettle drum). He kept trying to put his hand up my skirt on several occasions. I told our band teacher, and he told me I had the right to defend myself.(In other words, he was not going to stop the boy.) So, one day when the boy was harassing me again, I tried to slap him, and he jumped down a step and grabbed my hand. I had no other recourse than to kick him, and because he had jumped down a step, my kick landed squarely between his legs. He immediately let go of my hand. He spent the whole class on the floor in the instrument room. He never bothered me again. Neither one of us was ever reported nor punished for this conflict. He did not appear to suffer any permanent damage from my kick.

In case you were wondering what a sludge test is, here is a good description:
"A 'sludge test' for students is a hands-on science activity where students are presented with a mysterious mixture (the "sludge") containing various unknown substances, and they must use scientific techniques like filtration, distillation, and observation to identify the individual components within the mixture, essentially acting like mini-forensic scientists to "solve" the sludge puzzle; often used as an assessment to test their understanding of different chemical properties and separation methods.

Times have changed dramatically since my middle school years. Sexual harassment is taken much more seriously than back in 1972-73. Also, a sludge test would not be attempted today since open burners were used, and there were a few other dangerous components of this assessment.

My old middle school was named J.G. Whittier. The school was closed back in the 80's.

Tonight I decided to look up the poet J.G. Whittier. I found a poem of his which I really like, and think is motivational for anyone facing difficult times. See below a copy of this poem.

From Year to Year

Which comes first? The chicken or the egg. Does it matter?

Soon 2024 will be left behind in an archive older than time itself.
The year becomes new again in 2025.
There is a beginning and an end to every new year.
The ever-moving hand of time turns the dial of this transformation.

Those of us who live within time's framework must follow along.
What would it take to escape this framework?
Could one enter into a melting pot of the past, present, and the future existing all at once? Could one move freely from one to the other, and to the other? Would you turn into a chameleon in the process?

Keeping track of the chicken and the egg would be nearly impossible.
Does it really matter who came first?

Side note: I was inspired after reading some Ogden Nash poems, and reading about Puff, the Magic Dragon. The year of the dragon is coming to an end soon.
The new year requires some introspection before it begins.

Sweet Olive Whispers

Sweet olive flower artistically designed as a drop earring. I imagine it can whisper.

Osmanthus fragrans is its scientific name.

This flowering plant is native to Asia from the Himalayas through several provinces in China, Taiwan, southern Japan, and S.E. Asia as far south as Cambodia and Thailand.

In China, it is the “city flower” of several cities, and in Japan it is a “city tree” of several prefectures.

In Chinese mythology it is said that it grows on the moon. Wu Gang was a Chinese character who is known for endlessly cutting it down. It is seen as a divine punishment for him because this “self-healing” Osmanthus could and would regrow an equal amount every day.

I was inspired to look up this flowering plant when I saw this pair of earrings today. All the information here I have gleaned from Wikipedia. The picture has been edited from a picture on the Etsy website. Wikipedia did not suggest this flower can whisper. This thought came from my imagination, and when I read about the mythology, it confirmed to me it must have magical powers. Ha!

I even looked to see if I could grow this fragrant flowering plant in my garden. I think it needs a slightly warmer garden zone than where I am located. In the future when I get the chance to seriously renovate my garden, I will explore this possibility again.

Shakespeare Sunday

AI generated image with the prompt: “Prim-rose path with gate”

I was looking through my medicine cabinet this morning when I saw the Prim-rose Oil hiding in the corner. I have not used it in a long time, and I decided to look up “primrose” in my dictionary, even though I knew it to be a yellow flower.

Right below the “prim-rose” entry was the entry “prim-rose path”. This turned out to be far more interesting. This phrase was made famous by William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. According to my dictionary, it means “an easy or pleasurable way of life, especially one that leads to disaster.”

I pursued this idea further and discovered a great webpage: https://nosweatshakespeare.com/blog/what-is-the-primrose-path/

At this website I learned that Shakespeare used this metaphor in more than one place. I also learned that Shakespeare’s idea goes hand in hand with the bible verse: Matthew 7:13. So, I looked up this bible verse. It states: “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”

I am not a Shakespeare expert nor a Bible expert, so I will leave the comparison for you to explore, and to draw your own conclusions. I do think the lovely primrose should not be maligned for it is those who knowingly walk the wrong path with evil intent that are at fault. It matters not whether the path has flowers or whether the gate is narrow or wide.