MOST INTERESTING ESSAYS 12/4/25: THEORY & TRUTH, MEMORY & INTELLIGENCE, PSYCHIATRY, WRITING, EGYPT IN 2019, LIVE OR DIE, GARDEN OF EDEN, SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION, DEATH ROW, RIGHT & WRONG, FRANTZ FANON, TRUTHINESS, CONSPIRACY, LIBERALITY, LIFE IS LIQUID, BECOMING god-LIKE, TIPPING POINT, VANISHING WORLD
The story of Israel Keyes’ crimes, his eventual capture, and the trial of a United Health CEO killer make one realize how today’s surveillance technology is important, even in a relatively free society.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
American Predator (The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century)
Author: Maureen Callahan
Narration by: Amy Landon
Maureen Callahan (Author, journalist, columnist with a BA from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.)
This is a chilling history of a serial killer named Israel Keyes who lived in Alaska with his girlfriend and daughter. Callahan gathered facts from FBI files, interviews with investigators, court records and conversations with people who knew Keyes. Callahan begins with the story of an 18-year-old girl working at a coffee drive up as its sole occupant and worker. Ms. Samantha Koenig is stabbed to death the morning after she is abducted but her body is preserved by Keyes for days after her death. The cold of Alaska keeps the body from decomposing for an estimated two weeks in which it is kept in one of Keyes’ two sheds. Keyes then sinks her remains under the ice of an Alaskan lake.
Samatha Konig’s gruesome death leads to the capture of Israel Keyes.
When Keyes is captured, Callahan notes there were three primary interrogators. Jolene Goeden (an FBI investigator in the Anchorage, Alaska Division), Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Russo, and FBI Agent Jeff Bell. Their interrogations reveal Keyes travels, his “kill kits”, victims of his demented mind, his final confessions, and the details of his reported murders. The actual number of his murders will never be known because of the many missing and unsolved disappearances in the United States. Surveillance of his mode of transportation led to his arrest in Texas and an eventual confession to three murders. It is estimated that there were at least eleven murders but in the opinion of the author, it could be many more.
Keyes created “kill kits”, hidden packages with tools, money, and weapons that could be unburied in his many travels across the United States. His travels around America from Alaska, south, east, and west seems to have given him license to kill.
The three murders that were directly tied to Keyes were Samantha Koenig (age 18) and a married couple named Currie (Bill age 49 and Lorraine age 55). Keynes admits raping all three. The concrete evidence of these three murders, independent of what Keyes admitted to the FBI, were his possession of Samatha’s cell phone, debit card, pictures he had taken of her, details about the murder of the Curries, and DNA evidence found on Koenig’s body when recovered from a nearby lake. In the case of the Curries which he also admitted killing, the facts of the murder were explained with a detail of one who could only have been the murderer, and finally corroboration of his rental car mileage which showed he could have been there at the time of the murders. Keyes refused to offer details of other murders of at least 11 people that could not be documented well enough for American law to prove guilt beyond a doubt.
Israel Keyes (1978-2012, Keyes is the son of a family of 10 children raised in the states of California and Washington. He is found to be a serial killer, bank robber, burglar, arsonist, and kidnapper who is believed to have killed 11 people between 2001 and 2012.)
Keyes is a fanatically controlling person, militarily trained, athletic, and intelligent. Keyes lost his control of life when he is put in prison. That loss of control appears to lead him to commit suicide with a razor blade and garrote to ensure death by his own hand, a last act of his need for control. Callahan notes Keyes lived with two women during his life with a daughter born from his first relationship. Naturally, their lives are hidden from the public based on Keyes’ horrible and despicable crimes.
The story of Israel Keyes’ crimes, his eventual capture, and the trial of a United Health CEO killer make one realize how today’s surveillance technology is important, even in a relatively free society. Admittedly, surveillance can be taken to an extreme when used to control human behavior as shown in China, Russia, and North Korea. Israel Keyes would still be murdering and raping men and women without American surveillance that eventually leads to his arrest and conviction.
America’s system of justice is not perfect. It can be abused in ways that today’s President is showing. All human beings are flawed. Like Presidents of the United States, surveillance can be a curse or a blessing. Too much power, like too much surveillance, is a danger to society.
Like in Solomon’s parable, the baby must be saved. That is the mind-set required for a negotiated peace between Israelites and Palestinians in Agha’s and Malley’s “Tomorrow is Yesterday”.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Tomorrow is Yesterday (Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine)
Author: Hussein Agha, Robert Malley
Narration by: Imani Jade Powers
Hussein Agha (on the left) is a senior associate of Oxford University and was part of the Palestinian team that negotiated the Oslo II agreement in 1994-95. Robert Malley (on the right) is an American lawyer, political scientist and specialist in conflict resolution.
Imani Jade Powers (Actor, writer, and singer based in New York City and London.)
It is interesting that a female actor is asked to narrate “Tomorrow is Yesterday”. There is a harshness in Agha’s and Malley’s assessment of negotiations for peace between Jews and Palestinians in what seems an unresolvable conflict. It is the conflict between two peoples’ desire to live in a land that has historically been occupied by two different ethnicities. Presumably, a female narrator takes some (but not much) of the edge off the strong opinions expressed by the authors about the intransigence of Israeli/Palestinian leaders in coming to an agreement on their territorial rights in the Middle east. There is an irony in the choice of a woman narrator for the two men who wrote the book. One might presume a woman is chosen because of a woman’s longer association with nurturing rather than roiling humanity.
King Solomon ruled for 40 years in the Kingdom of Israel and built the First Temple in Jerusalem.
One may ask themselves of these two men’s history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict–where is the wisdom of Solomon that challenged two women who claimed the same baby? Solomon orders the baby be cut in half, giving each woman one half. One woman agrees and the other begs the king to spare the child and give him to her rival. This seems the essence of the conflict between the State of Israel and the stateless Palestinians. What Agha and Malley imply is the leadership of the Israelites and Palestinians refuse to agree on sharing their land and choose to kill each other instead. There are no leaders that seem to have the compassion to save their progeny by either sharing or dividing the disputed territory upon which they live.
The Oslo Accord with Clinton, Rabin and Arafat in its first iteration.
The authors suggest the only negotiation that had any success was in the Oslo accords in which one of the negotiators is Hussein Agha (the co-author of this book). His experience with both sides of the negotiation offers some surprising and interesting profiles of the participants. Yasser Arafat is the symbolic father of the Palestinians, but he is shown as an ambiguous negotiator who is charismatic but contradictory which makes him both indispensable and obstructive. It is his identity as a leader of the Palestinians, rather than any negotiating skill, that makes him a player in the negotiations. In the second iteration of the Oslo Accords, the pragmatic Palestinian is Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) but he did not have the legitimacy of Arafat in the authors’ opinions. On the Israeli side there is Barak, Olmert, and Netanyahu. The first two seem to be rationalist pragmatists but Netanyahu, not surprisingly, is characterized as a skeptic who believed the Oslo Accords were a threat to Israel. On the American side is Clinton who focused on closing a deal which fails to confront the historical and emotional roots of the conflict.
In the end, at best, the authors argue Oslo creates a process for negotiating but not peace.
The process allows both sides to avoid confronting the deeper issues of their conflict. The Oslo Accords gave the illusion of progress without any real movement on either side. October 7th is clear evidence of the truth of that observation.
World superpowers of the future.
None of the world’s most powerful leaders, including America, China, Russia, the UK, Germany, South Korea, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, or Israel show the wisdom of a Soloman. All the leaders on both sides of the negotiation appear to have their heads in the sand with agendas that fail to understand or address the fundamental concerns of the opposing sides. The results have been to allow events to unfold where Israeli’ and Palestinian’ families are torn apart, kidnapped, imprisoned, raped or murdered.
“Tomorrow is Yesterday” is a painful recitation of the failure of the world to understand and resolve the conflict between the Israelites and the Palestinian people. These two authors have an opinion about how “Tomorrow…” can be different than “…Yesterday”. They argue steps toward peace can only occur with a better understanding of what drives their conflict. The writers note there needs to be a mutual understanding of the trauma and injustice of their conflicts. Their respective suffering, and a sense of injustice needs to be accountably recognized by both Israeli and Palestinian leaders for a chance of a negotiated peace.
The authors do not show a plan, roadmap, or political structure that will settle disagreement between Israelis and Palestinians.
What they explain is why previous plans have failed. They diagnose the disease which is revealed in the history of failed plans for reconciliation. There seem to be only two options. One is a two-state solution, and the other is one state with equal representation, along the lines of the relative peace between Irish Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Like in Solomon’s parable, the baby must be saved. That is the mind-set required for a negotiated peace between Israelites and Palestinians in Agha’s and Malley’s “Tomorrow is Yesterday”.
The boon and bane of a brilliant mind is that it can correlate facts with causes to reveal the mysteries of the universe but also the demons of false correlation and belief.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Best Minds (A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions)
Author: Jonathan Rosen
Narration by: Jonathan Rosen
Jonathan Rosen (Author, Yale graduate, writes for The Jewish Daily Forward, and the Free Press.)
As a person who has lived through the same generation as Jonathan Rosen, his story is interesting partly because it tells what it is like to be born a Jew in America. In many ways, one finds life as a Jew is no different than it is for any American. Most Americans are born into a family that cares for them and influences who they become as adults. Children are born with innate abilities that are either cultivated or ignored by their parents. Some parents are too busy with their own lives to offer care a child may benefit from with more attention. It appears Jonathan Rosen is born into a family that cultivates his abilities despite their busy lives. One wonders if that is a matter of ethnic tradition or inherent nature. One suspects it is a little of both.
In “The Best Minds”, an important part of being raised a Jew is education that encourages and reinforces Jewish identity through rituals like the bar mitzva.
The bar mitzva and bat mitzva (for girls) is a coming-of-age ceremony at age 13 (sometimes 12 for girls) where a Jewish child memorizes and recites passages from the Torah. On the one hand it reinforces one’s identity with a particular ethnicity. On the other, it is one of many exercises of memory that reinforces one’s ability to succeed academically. Much of one’s success as an accomplished adult is recall of information whether a doctor, lawyer, or merchant chief. From a young age, memorization is an important skill for Jewish children. One wonders how much tradition has to do with the brilliance of Einstein, Oppenheimer, Salk and so many other Jews of the world. This is not to suggest being raised in a Jewish family is not as traumatic and unpredictable as any child born but to recognize ethnic customs make a difference in children’s lives. The great contributions to science and art by Jews makes one wish they might live life over again with more positively ritualized cultivation.
Michael Laudor (Yale graduate, subject of “The Best Minds)
However, there is much more to Rosen’s story. His life is intertwined with the life of Michael Laudor, a close childhood friend who is raised in a similar environment and recognized as a prodigy. However, Lauder succumbs to schizophrenia. This is not to suggest Jews or any ethnicity is prone to psychological imbalance. Psychiatric imbalance is not defined by ethnicity but exists as a potential for every human being. One doubts there is any defense against psychological abnormality whether Jew, gentile, or other.
Laudor and Rosen as childhood friends.
Laudor and Rosen were close friends. Rosen recognizes his friend has a superior mind, i.e., one of “The Best Minds” of Rosen’s high school’ years. Rosen struggles to understand what happened to his childhood friend. Both Rosen and Laudor are accepted at Yale. Laudor chooses law as his course of study. Rosen goes on to California to get a PhD in literature. Their dual biographies make Rosen’s story impactful. Rosen explains how intelligence, ambition, and success can be destroyed by mental illness.
Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
Laudor is a wunderkind who performs at a level far beyond his age group. He graduates from Yale and decides wealth is a goal to be achieved. He is hired by an investment consulting firm which offers him an opportunity to become super-rich. Rosen infers Laudor succeeds. From the outside, Laudor appears to be highly successful, but he becomes dissatisfied with his life and quits the firm that hired him. Rosen stays in touch with Laudor and writes “The Best Minds” to reveal what he thinks he knows about what happened to his childhood friend. The beginning of Laudor’s imbalance appears to Rosen when Laudor explains he is being followed, monitored and targeted by unknown malefactors. Before that conversation, the erratic behavior of Rosen’s friend seemed like a matter of burnout from his high-flying experience as an investment consultant. The intensity of Laudor’s paranoia makes Rosen believe something more serious is at the root of his friend’s behavior.
Rosen stays in touch with Laudor–talking to him about what is going on in his life. He tries to get Laudor to see the falseness of his delusions without triggering defensiveness. Rosen avoids contradicting Laudor by trying to be supportive and encouraging him to seek help. On the one hand one wonders what more could Rosen do. How else could he intervene in Laudor’s spiral into what is later diagnosed as schizophrenia? A reader/listener wonders what they would or could have done.
Michael Laudor murders his fiancée, Carrie Costello, in 1998. She is pregnant at the time of her death.
Laudor had grown to believe his girlfriend had become a part of a conspiracy to harm him and that he needed to defend himself despite her trying to care for him. His brilliant mind manufactured a false reality. His delusion leads to the fatal stabbing of Ms. Costello. After the homicide, Laudor calls 911. He is arrested and transferred to a psychiatric facility and later found guilty by reason of insanity. He died in 2022 at the age of 56 in a New York State psychiatric hospital, never recovering from severe schizophrenia.
“The Best Minds” is Rosen’s effort to understand how genius and madness can be intertwined. The boon and bane of a brilliant mind is that it can correlate facts with causes to reveal the mysteries of the universe but also the demons of false correlation and belief. Correlation is not causation without objective and repeatable experimental proof.
The question one asks oneself after finishing Rosen’s book is what one can do differently to keep someone from losing their way in life whether he/she is a genius or not?
“The God of Small Things” is a revealing and disturbing telling of the human condition.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The God of Small Things
Author: Arundhati Roy
Narration by: Sneha Mathan
Arundhati Roy (Author, Booker Prize for Fiction awarded in 1997 for “The God of Small Things”.)
Arundhati Roy gained fame with “The God of Small Things” because of its originality. It is in the big and small things of colonialism and culture that expose the flaws of all societies. “The God of Small Things’ is a criticism of the world in which we live. Roy creates a fictional story that helps one understand the emotional, social, and political failings of India that are, in reality, repeated in societies throughout the world.
Rather than disrupting the caste system of India, Britain created an Anglophile elite that competed and supported Brahman aristocracy.
In some ways, British colonialism reshaped India’s culture. Britain’s colonization of India created a level of class superiority that hardens the administrative functions of India’s government. That hardening became an integral part of Indian culture. The English language became a symbol of superiority. Schools, courts, and government offices emulated British customs that copied systems of hierarchy, and labor control that continued after the British abandoned colonialist control of India. In visiting India, British influence is seen in country estates that travelers stay in when they ride trains from the north to the south.
The more encompassing truth of Roy’s observations is that the flaws in India’s society exist in all societies.
Ammu, one of Roy’s main characters, is a Syrian Christian woman who marries a man from a lower caste. Her husband comes from the so-called “Untouchable” caste. He turns out to be a brutal abuser of his wife and is eventually divorced by Ammu, but she continues to suffer from discrimination for her religious belief and her breaking of the caste taboos of India.
Roy’s characters like Baby Kochamma, a young woman obsessed with English manners and Catholic respectability is mocked by others in her community. Having an Oxford education became a badge of status with Englishness at the top of the hierarchy of Indian culture. Roy’s novel is set in the 1960s. A moral code of sexual guilt, fear of sin, belief in purity, and policing of desire are exemplified by India’s women who are influenced by catholic proselytizing. In today’s India, the most endemic religion is Hinduism. Rules of marriage, the norms of purity, the stigma of divorce, and association of sin with female desire are tied to Hindu social beliefs. As a Catholic, Baby Kochamma has the additional burden of believing in a minority religion which exacerbates her isolation.
Caste system’s endurance in India is undoubtedly reinforced today by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and its President, Droupadi Murmu, who are Hindu adherents. Though Roy shows there is little theological hostility between Catholic and Hindu influences, there are inherent tensions between these two religions. Roy infers caste system is reinforced by Hindu beliefs while Catholicism is less concerned about caste than morality or guilt. The irony is that Catholicism rejects caste in theory while accepting it as a part of India’s culture. The two religions compete while reinforcing similar authoritarian beliefs on India’s citizens.
A point made by Roy is that societal, religious, and political dysfunction is not limited to India. Dysfunction exists in all nations.
When Roy’s character Ammu succumbs to the sexual desire of a male, she is criticized more for the caste difference than the sin of entering into an intimate relationship that ultimately falls apart with the abuse of her husband. The physical abuse compounds her violation of Hindu’ caste belief. The fact is that Ammu divorces her husband because he is an abusive alcoholic, not because of caste difference.
Roy shows India is a microcosm of the world, weighted down with sexism and discriminatory inequality that grows from ignorance, and societal dysfunction which often turns into human violence within and between societies and nations that can engulf the world.
“The God of Small Things” is a revealing and disturbing telling of the human condition.
Brianna Weist philosophical book is worth listening to as a guide but not as an authority of how one should live their life.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
101 Essays That Will Change the Way You Think
Author: Brianna Wiest
Narration by: Abby Craden
Brianna Wiest (Author, earned a BA in English and received an Honorary Doctorate in Literature from Elizabethtown College.
This is an odd book because it is written by someone who is not a psychologist, psychiatrist or therapist but presumes to know how one can understand themselves, think differently and become a more psychologically heathy human being. “101 Essays…” has become a popularly read and listened to book by the public. Of course, one can take her observations like one would take the meaning of many non-fiction authors who have a point of view about life and living. They are called philosophers.
One finds Wiest’s essays make sense, but her formal education makes one uncomfortable with her expressed beliefs.
On the other hand, what formal education was there for Socrates? (A. I. generated image of Socrates as a young man.)
Weist is straight forward in her opinions, and she taps into a human wish for one to be psychologically and physically as good as they can be. Changing “…the Way You Think” is no easy task but the idea of consciously understanding ourselves is an oxymoron that limits one’s ability to change. We are as likely to lie to ourselves about who we are or what we believe as to have a true understanding of ourselves.
Daniel Kahneman is a renowned psychologist and Nobel laureate. He is an American citizen that served in the Israeli military and used his education, research, and experience to write “Thinking Fast and Slow”. His observations explore many aspects of human decision-making.
Weist logically argues one can become a better human being by changing the way they think. She is not acting as a clinical psychologist but as a philosopher of life and how one may make the most of it. If one understands Weist from that perspective, she is like Marcus Aurelius, Soren Kierkegaard, or Simone de Beauvoir. She has a philosophical point of view but not necessarily a happier or more fulfilling life.
The meaning of experience on one’s life is often too opaque for one’s understanding without the help of others.
Weist writes we should see what hurts others and ourselves and quit doing those hurtful things by changing our mind. This seems a good idea but denies the subjectivity and the unique experiences in one’s life. Many people are unable to understand the impact of experience on their lives. They are unable to change the way they think because they are unable to understand how or why an experience has affected their lives. Only with the help of a qualified psychologist, psychiatrist, or trained therapist can most people objectively understand themselves to constructively change their mind.
Nevertheless, Weist philosophical book is worth listening to as a guide but not an authority on how one should live their life. Most human beings are not introspective enough to find their way through life without the help of a person trained to elicit what we do not know about ourselves. On the other hand, it appears Weist has a genius beyond her years of life.
Like being a New Zealander, Americans are made of many cultures. That is an underlying theme of Hampton Sides interesting biography of Captain Cook.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
The Wide Wide Sea (Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook)
Author: Hampton Sides
Narration by: Peter Noble
Hampton Sides (Author, American historian Yale graduate with a BA in history. As an editor, Sides has written many articles for national publications. He is awarded an honorary doctorate from Colorado College.)
Hampton Sides has written an interesting history of James Cook’s voyages with a focus on his final expedition to find a Northwest Passage. This is a slightly misleading statement because in the 18th century, a ship sailing from the Atlantic to the Pacific typically had to navigate around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. Explorers seeking a northern connection between the oceans attempted to reach a Northwest Passage, but the Arctic route was blocked by ice. Why would one think there was a northwest access from the Pacific if there was no passage from the Atlantic? Apparently, people believed the Atlantic side had been thoroughly searched without finding a passage, but the Pacific had been less explored and might have an unknown channel that would allow passage.
Sides writes the story of an 18th century navigator who had sailed the globe twice and was contracted to find a Northwest route that would shorten the distance between Europe and the North American continent. Called out of retirement by the British Admiralty, James Cook set sail on his third and final voyage in 1776, a propitious year for the American colonies. Cook took command of the HMS Resolution, accompanied by one other vessel eventually commanded by Captain Charles Clerke on the HMS Discovery. (Both Clerke and Cook died on this voyage, i.e., Clerke from tuberculosis and Cook from a melee in the Pacific.) It is interesting to find that the vessels are loaded with animals as well as food provision for long voyages. Sides notes Cook dislikes the requirement of livestock because of the stink from their offal. Cook is a stickler for the cleanliness of his vessels and crew members. However, Cook recognizes livestock’s importance on long voyages for adequate food provision.
Before science showed lack of vitamin C caused scurvy, Cook required provisioning of fruit on his long voyages.
It is Cook’s observation of other mariners’ health experience that made Cook decide on food provisioning for his voyages. Sides writes Captain Cook only had a village-school education, but he had a practical maritime apprenticeship based on learning by doing as well as by observation of past sailings of other mariners.
The character of Cook is somewhat revealed in the history of an earlier voyage to New Zealand in 1773.
Sadly, Sides notes Cook’s personally written logs and correspondence are stoic with little insight to his emotions. He notes Cook’s stoicism is even more difficult to pierce because his younger wife destroyed Cook’s personal letters. Nevertheless, Cook’s stern character is illustrated by Sides’ details during his voyages. There is no doubt in a listener’s mind that Cook is a highly competent leader who brooked no opposition from his crew while exhibiting a nascent understanding of the importance of native cultures. Sides shows Cook to be a keen observer of different cultures and, for the most part, avoided criticism of other societies as long as they did not interfere with the Admiralty’s commissioned objectives.
A New Zealand Māori politician, Nanaia Mahuta, serving New Zealand in 2021.
The indigenous Māori live in New Zealand today. Cook’s two ships that visited New Zealand were the Resolution and Adventure. They became separated because of bad weather. The captain of the Adventure, Tobias Furneaux arrives in New Zealand after Cook had already departed. Furneaux dispatched 10 armed men to collect fruited plants for scurvy prevention. The 10 men did not return. In searching for the men, the search party found severed body parts being eaten by dogs. A tattooed hand revealed the remains as one of the 10 men. The 10 mariners had been killed in what is called a whāngai hau ritual which is an act of consuming an enemy’s spirit by eating their flesh. Because Cook had already left, the search party interrupted the ritual and recovered some of the remains. The cause of the 10 men’s killing is unknown but the incident shaped Māori–European relations. When Cook returned, he chose not to retaliate because he did not know what caused the killings and understood the acts of the Māori were a culturally influenced event, presumably caused by something the 10 men did that threatened the indigenous New Zealand tribe. Cook chose to respect the cultural beliefs of the tribe rather than seek a revenge urged by some of his crew.
New Zealand farmland.
Having personally visited New Zealand, one appreciates one of the most beautiful places in the world, but the story of the Māori Grass Cove incident is a shocking reminder of how much civilization has changed over the centuries. One of our guides belonged to the Māori tribe.
Sides explains Cook is commissioned by the Admiralty to settle a question of the existence of a presumed unknown southern continent in the Pacific that was tentatively identified as Terra Australis. Cook’s expedition found there was no great habitable continent to the south, but he crossed the Antarctic Circle many times. Massive ice fields kept Cook from the Antarctic mainland. Anyone who has visited Antarctica knows of the Drake passage and how rough the sea can be. Having visited Antarctica clearly shows year-round habitation would be like living on the moon, i.e. possible but highly inhospitable. Cook found no habitable continents in the south seas because there are none.
Kealakekua Bay in Hawaii.
Cook’s third expedition is the first European contact with Hawaii after passing through the Bering Strait on his way through the north Pacific. Ironically, in his last voyage, he is killed in Hawaii in 1779, one year after he returned to Hawaii. He had spent a year more searching for the passage when he returned to Hawaii on his way back to England. When Cook first landed on Hawaii, he and his crew were welcomed with open arms. Cook appears like a God to many Hawaiians. Cook’s steely personality is two edged in that it made him a great leader of men on long exploratory voyages, but he brooked no insubordinate behavior. When returning to Hawaii after a year of looking for the Northwest Passage, reception by the Hawaiians was less respectful. A boat is stolen by some Hawaiians when they were anchored at Kealakekua Bay. The stolen boat is a major diplomatic and military issue because it was an important piece of the ship’s survival. Sides notes theft is not uncommon in native Hawaiian culture. Cook’s response is to attempt capture of the chief of Hawaii and hold him hostage until the boat is returned. The Hawaiians resist. A fight breaks out and Cook is struck; he falls to the ground and is stabbed and beaten to death by the Hawaiians. Four marines were killed with 17 Hawaiians that died in the confrontation. Cook’s body is ritually dismembered as is the custom of the Hawaiian culture in respecting a high-ranking enemy.
A.I. Generated picture of what Omai may have looked like.
Sides’ story is more than a recounting of historical facts. He writes several chapters about a native of the Society Islands name Omai who became a celebrity in London. Cook had brought Omai to England after his second world voyage. Omai boards the ship on Cook’s third voyage to be returned to his homeland after having lived in London for two years. The Society Islands are an archipelago in the South Pacific Ocean made up of Tahiti and four other islands.
At first, one wonders why the story of Omai is included in Side’s book. One realizes the story of Captain Cook, in broad strokes, is well known but Omai reflects on how history is shaped by those who tell a story that often obscures the complexity of past events.
The story of Omai is obscured by the big picture of Captain Cook’s momentous voyages but Omai’s story shows how cultures are widely misunderstood because of those who tell the story. Omai’s cultural influences are lost because they are interpreted through the lens of a society that sees people of other cultures as noble savages or exotics, i. e., not based on their unique experience and culture. After Omai’s experience in London, he is no longer just a Tahitian. In returning to Omai’s culture, he is a different human being. He becomes an exotic in both societies. He dies only a few years after his return to his native country.
Many cultures have influenced what Americans have become.
One comes away from “The Wide Wide Sea” thinking of today’s immigration policy and the many who have come here to only be rejected for not being born in America. America has lost its historical memory. Many people who immigrated have added their cultures to society in many positive ways that have made America great. Our ignorance and actions that contradict that truth are appalling to many. Captain Cook recognized the murder and dismemberment of ten Englishmen by the Māori was terrible, but his response respected their culture. The Māori remain an important part of New Zealand culture just as American Indians are an important part of American culture. To arbitrarily reject immigrants without due process is unjustifiable in a country made great by many different cultures.
Like being a New Zealander, Americans are made of many cultures. That is an underlying theme of Hampton Sides interesting biography of Captain Cook.
The story of McCandless’s life is that meaning in life comes from people and nature, not one or the other but both.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Into the Wild
Author: Jon Krakauer
Narration by: Philip Franklin
John Krakauer (Author, mountaineer, raised in Corvallis, Oregon.)
The main character in “Into the Wild”, tuned in and dropped out. His “tune in” is not to drugs but a wish to understand the meaning of life. Christopher Johnson McCandless chose, after graduating from Atlanta, Georgia’s Emory University, to live off the grid of society, i.e. particularly capitalist society. His degree is a BA in history and anthropology. McCandless chooses to drive around the country, working at dead-end jobs to sustain himself until he finds a place to live in a natural habitat, without the aid of society which he believes keeps him from understanding the meaning of life. He began a “walk about” from Georgia with a plan to explore survival in the frigid wilds of Alaska. McCandless kept a journal of his search for life’s meaning. His journal became the guiding source for Jon Krakauer’s book about McCandless’s brief life.
Christopher Johnson McCandless (1967-1992, died at the age of 24.)
The McCandless family picture with Christopher either before or after enrollment at Emory University.
McCandless came from a solidly middleclass family but rejected capitalism defined by the desire for money, power, and/or prestige. He obviously loved the outdoors and wished to explore the possibility of living off the land with whatever nature had to offer. McCandless rebels against capitalist beliefs when graduating from college. He begins a search for the meaning of life beyond the principles of a capitalist society. He sought understanding by experiencing the attractions and dangers of the American wilderness. McCandless wishes to be free of materialism, his familial relationships, and the conventions of a middleclass capitalist life.
(One wonders if McCandless’s story is part of today’s rising homelessness with people living in tents, sleeping in business doorways and on sidewalks of American cities? Are Americans becoming disillusioned with capitalism because the gap between rich and poor is rising and pushing the middleclass into poverty? Some argue the cost of living is climbing faster than the wages of employment.)
McCandless graduation form Emory University in Atlanta Georgia.
With a BA in history and anthropology, McCandless graduates from Emory in 1990 and leaves Atlanta, heading west. Rather than look for a job or extending his education, he donates his savings to charity, cuts off communication with his family, and journeys to the west in a 1982, B210, Datsun. He heads southwest, traveling to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico. He spends some time in Arizona with odd jobs and becomes stranded when his Datsun is disabled by a flood. He hitchhikes to California via Las Vegas, goes through South Dakota with his determined destination being Alaska in 1992. Nearly two years have passed since graduating from Emory.
Map showing McCandless’s two years of travel from the East to the West, mid-West, and on to Alaska.
McCandless kept a journal of his travels. The author, John Krakauer, interviews some of the people McCandless meets and/or works for that are noted in his journey. All say he was a nice person and hard worker who dependably showed up for work. However, one employer noted he had to be told to take a shower and wear socks when he came to work at their fast-food restaurant. McCandless was obviously homeless and had no shower facilities in which to bathe. He reluctantly complied as best he could but soon left to find his way to Alaska.
Sample of McCandless’s journal when he called himself Alex Supertramp.
McCandless arrives in southern California. He meets an older (80 something) American named Ronald Franz, a leatherworker, who tries to convince McCandless to give up his wandering life. They become friends but McCandless leaves Franz without saying goodbye as he heads north. The importance of their relationship is shown in a letter sent to Franz by McCandless that explains his inner conflicts. McCandless explains his need for independence and the freedom it gives him to personally connect with himself. By abandoning materialism, wealth, and social expectations, McCandless believes it makes him free. The tension created by McCandless’s belief in social isolation versus human relationship is expressed in his letter to Franz. Being alone is no answer to the conflict one feels toward their family or those who are part of society. Part of one’s identity, belief in who they are, and belief in oneself is reinforced by other people, not in wilderness isolation. This is a lesson of life that McCandless refuses to see or understand. The well-known poet, John Donne, recognizes “No man is an island”. All humans are interconnected which is a truth McCandless refuses to see.
McCandless dies in a Fairbanks city Transit bus he used as a shelter in Alaska. John Krakauer speculates on the cause of death being inadvertent poisoning from eating potato seeds because of McCandless’s hunger, emaciation, and lack of nourishment. If there is meaning in life, McCandless search and isolation is in vain. The story of McCandless’s life is that meaning in life comes from people and nature, not one or the other but both.
Like being raised in India by a single parent, Roy shows parallels of what it’s like to be raised in America. We all become who we are by genetic inheritance, socialization, experience, choice, and chance.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Mother Mary Comes to Me
Author: Arundhati Roy
Narration by: Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy (Author, Booker Prize for Fiction awarded in 1997 for “The God of Small Things”.)
Born in India in 1961, Arundhati Roy offers a memoir of her life. Roy is born into a Christian family in a country that is 79.8% Hindu while only 2.3% Christian. Roy suggests her early life is shaped more by instability than penury. Her mother is a teacher who becomes a founder of a school. It seems Roy’s young life is filled with emotional turbulence with a fierce and complicated mother who greatly influences her.
The poverty of India.
The facts of Roy’s memoir are straightforward but the presentation and supporting examples of a mother who is fierce and complicated are both humorous and foreboding. One can understand why Roy is capable of overcoming the hardship of life to become an accomplished writer.
Arundhati Roy’s mother Mary.
Roy explains her mother and father were divorced when she was two years old. Her father was a Bengali Christian who managed a tea plantation but appears absent from most of Roy’s young life. Her mother, Mary Roy, seems a great part of who she became and what she believes. Her mother seems both a source of terror and inspiration. Her mother’s rages and criticism had an immense impact on who Roy became as an adult. Her mother had a reputation as a celebrated educator, and a women’s rights activist who was politically active in Indian rights. Her mother’s education and activism became a gravitational center for Arundhati Roy.
Cremation preparation for burial in the Ganges River in India in 2018.
A part of what makes Roy’s memoir interesting is her perspective on India’s culture. Having traveled to northern India, the harsh climate, overcrowded streets, Ganges burial ceremonies, and obvious poverty juxtaposed with fine hotels and great restaurants is disturbing to a traveler who can afford to see the world.
Single parent homes in America.
However, Roy’s story shows being raised by a single parent (most often a single mother) is not uncommon and the influence of a one parent family appears the same in India as in America. The unique experience Roy has in India is interesting because of its similarity to a single-parent child’s experience in America. Roy is highly influenced by the mother who raised her. Roy is reflecting on truths that apply to children’s experiences in America. Though a single parent to a child is a primary influence, there are others like teachers, mentors, friends, and extended family members that influence who we become. However, being raised by a mother who is responsible for your education and survival tempers your feelings about parenting. You realize how hard a single parent’s life can be with responsibilities beyond taking care of themselves.
A circle of life statue in Norway reflects the importance of mothers in raising children in the world.
Roy, as an adult, recognizes her mother as a sun around which her life revolves. Roy’s mother divorces when Arundhati is two years old. Her father is characterized as an alcoholic and not part of Roy’s life as a child. Her mother is a model of independence, activism, and defiance. Her mother understood, despite male dominance in Indian society, a woman must have grit, political courage, and belief in their role in society. That attitude shaped Roy as a writer and activist. Roy’s mother gave her a sense of self, partly from love but also from respect for independence from the harsh realities of life. Roy’s mother died in 2022 which undoubtedly explains a part of why this memoir is written.
Women’s impact on the world.
Roy explains her mother was intense, intelligent, and emotionally volatile. In Roy’s life, her mother is a source of terror and inspiration. On the one hand, her mother frightened her and her brother but on the other she fueled Roy’s courage and creativity as an independent human being. As she approaches her own adulthood, fear of her mother changes to overt resistance. Roy leaves home at the age of 18 which undoubtedly represents her drive for independence, but she fully realizes her mother’s example made her the adult she became.
Not surprisingly, Roy objects to Hindu authoritarian nationalism represented by India’s political leader, President Narendra Modi.
Roy feels Modi’s BJP party discriminates against women and uses religion as a political tool to weaponize Hindu nationalism that shapes its authoritarianism. She argues dissenters, and minorities are being silenced when seeking equal rights for all. Roy is not writing about her spiritual beliefs but about India’s use of religion, politics, and its legal system to restrict equal rights for all. Roy shows she is her mother’s daughter who is a fierce and opinionated feminist.
Raising children of the world.
In pointing to life in India and Roy’s upbringing, she humorously addresses her mother’s contradictions, her theatricality, and the chaos of her upbringing. What is missing are examples of personal relationships her mother had with others after her divorce from an alcoholic husband. (The truth is that the book is long enough as it is.) Like being raised in India by a single parent, Roy shows parallels of what it’s like to be raised in America. We all become who we are by genetic inheritance, socialization, experience, choice, and chance. It is the parent who stands with us through our childhood that gives us what is good and bad about who we become.
Imagining a single mother raising a child, working full time, and trying to be happy is an arduous task in itself.
Roy’s mother prepared her daughter for the hardship of life with a decent education and the toughness needed to cope with both failure and success. Roy shows her mother succeeded in making her daughter a tough independent adult in “Mother Mary Comes to Me”. Roy’s life seems to repeat some of the mistakes of her mother’s life while forging her own success as a writer and opinionated activist.
In the book “A Marriage at Sea”, one wonders how a husband or wife would respond in a crisis. Who would take command and who would follow? Is it a matter of nature or nurture?
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
A Marriage at Sea (A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck)
Author: Sophie Elmhirst
Narration by: Marisa Calin
Sophie Elmhirst (Author, British journalist who wrote the story of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey who survived 118 days on a life raft in 1973.)
Surprisingly, Elmhirst writes about marriage in telling the story of a shipwreck that left Maurice and Maralyn Bailey on a life raft in the Pacific Ocean for 118 days. The Baileys had been married for 9 and a half years when their yacht was struck by what is presumed to be a dying whale.
The Baileys.
The Baileys were a middle-class British couple who fell in love with an idea to buy a small yacht and sale the sea to visit the Galapagos islands and beyond, a fantasy both adopt. Maurice’s strict childhood had prepared him to master the technical skills of a seafarer, but Maralyn seems to have the determination to make their dream real. They sold all their possessions, including their home, and contracted with a boatbuilder in Southampton who began the long process of building a yacht for their voyage at sea.
Maralyn Bailey using a sextant on their sailboat.
They set sale in June 1972 in a 31-foot yacht named Auralyn. They crossed the Atlantic and reached Panama in February 1973 and headed for the Galapagos islands in the Pacific, expecting it to take ten days. At dawn on March 4, 1973, their vessel was struck by a whale in the Pacific Ocean. They were 300 miles from the Galapagos islands when their vessel sank. Water filled the hold, and they abandoned ship on a raft with a small dinghy they used to store supplies they gathered from their sinking boat.
Maralyn and Maurice on a rubber raft before their sea adventure.
On the one hand, the knowledge of Maurice’s navigation skill aided their eventual rescue, but it seems Maralyn’s will and determination saves their lives. Their slim provisions would only last for a few days before dehydration and starvation. To last for their 118 days adrift, they improvised. They caught and ate raw turtles, fish, and seabirds while collecting rainwater for their sustenance. They had no fishing hooks and had to bend safety pins. They had to make fishing line for the hooks from thread, cord, twine, or maybe the yacht’s emergency kit. Whatever they caught had to be killed, cleaned, and eaten raw.
Seven ships passed the Baileys who were lost at sea.
Seven ships passed the Baileys but did not see their raft and dinghy. Even though they were in the “Sea Lane”, it is easy to understand why they were missed. They had flares that did not ignite which made their being seen unlikely, particularly with the immense size of sea transport vessels. Their hope for rescue rose and fell with each vessel sighting. Their boat, the size of the ships, and the distance from sea-going vessels must have been too far for anyone on board to see them.
Vessel that found the Baileys.
It is a South Korean fishing boat that spots them. They had drifted over 1800 miles from the Galapagos Islands when they were rescued. Fortunately, the Bailey’s voyage is within the fishing routes of the Pacific. South Korean fishing boats would travel hundreds of miles from shore to catch tuna, billfish, mahi-mahi and other marketable fish. The South Korean boat was a deep-sea commercial fishing vessel. Its smaller size undoubtedly helped them see the Baileys.
The Bailey’s after their recovery from 117 days on the sea.
The Baileys were severely emaciated. Both had lost over 40 pounds. They could barely walk because of malnutrition and saltwater sores from skin irritation. It is hard to conceive of how exhausted they must have been. The Baileys were taken to Honolulu, Hawaii for medical care and recovery. Without doubt, the South Koreans saved the Baileys lives but it was a 1500-mile trip to Honolulu for the fishing vessel which would take 5 to 8 more days.
Sexual equality.
Elmhirst’s story suggests survival is largely because of Maralyn’s tough-mindedness and attention to her husband’s strengths and weaknesses.
In a marriage, one wonders how any husband and wife might respond in a crisis. Who would take command and who would follow in a crisis? Is it a matter of nature or nurture? In the case of the Bailey’s crisis, it appears Maralyn took command. The cost of that command is unknown, but parenthetically one notes Maralyn died at 61 while Maurice lived into his 80s.
There is a risk of pathologizing social skills if one comes away from Clayton’s book thinking that fawning is only a negative characteristic of society.
Books of Interest Website: chetyarbrough.blog
Fawning (Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves–and How to Find Our Way Back)
Author: Ingrid Clayton
Narration by: Ingrid Clayton
Ingrid Clayton (Author, clinical psychologist, trauma therapist)
“Fawning” as described by psychologist Ingrid Clayton can cause an unconscious trauma when a person appeases, pleases, or over-accommodates others to feel safe. Clayton explains it is a survival strategy for one who deals with another person who is physically or emotionally abusive. Clayton recalls her life as a child with a stepfather who is grooming her for an intimate relationship when she is 13 years old. Clayton manages to avoid that relationship but explains the long-term psychological impact in her life is similar to PTSD.
Post-traumatic-stress disorder is a mental health condition caused by experiences, witnesses, or traumatic events that make one feel fear, stress, or danger. Clayton notes that her life when leaving home at 17 had those symptoms. She pursues a college education, graduates, continues her education to receive a PhD and finds employment as a therapist.
Pedophilia.
At the age of 13, her male stepfather created a grooming environment that created a long-term psychological impact on her life. She matured to feel fear, stress, and danger in developing relationships with others. She wrote “Fawning” as an educated PhD clinical psychologist to explain how a child growing to an adult can “…lose themselves…” with a form of PTSD. She believes she has found a pathway back to relationship’ normality after years of broken relationships. The irony of her realization is that all human beings are “fawners”.
Some will be inclined to put Clayton’s book down as an exaggeration of relationship reality but as she tells of her personal experience and therapy of others, both men and women, her beliefs become disturbingly credible. As one examines their own life (if they have lived as long as this book reviewer) know every human being is raised in their own familial circumstances. Children raised with 1, 2, or no parent families, develop behavior toward themselves and others that can lead to abuse of others which diminish their and other’s humanity. What Clayton shows is how her stepfather grooms her and how she responds based on her own grooming ability. She rejects his advances, a grooming behavior that a parent-child relationship allows with the risk of physical sexual abuse.
There is truth in Clayton’s explanation of “Fawning” as a universal relationship modifier, but it is not always linked to either grooming or abuse. People-pleasing behavior is a universal characteristic of society.
There can be good reasons as well as bad reasons for fawning. Looking at grooming as the only lens one views fawning diminishes its social value. That is certainly not Clayton’s intent but one may come away from her book seeing pedophilia as the primary consequence of fawning. The reality is that rigid family dynamics, cultural hierarchy, and high-pressure workplaces are common examples of fawning. Social cohesion and disruption are a general consequence of human nature influenced by fawning.
Clayton outlines a pathway back from PTSD. Prevention of trauma is of course the best solution. However, if one is a child, prevention becomes more problematic.
Clayton argues it is important to recognize fawning is not a people-pleasing choice but a survival strategy. Rather than feeling fear from what appears to be happening, clearly remind yourself of who you are and what you believe to be right. Recognize other’s motives. Respond appropriately by speaking up if your personal boundaries are being violated. Reflect on who you are and interrupt any motives of others that conflict with what you believe about yourself. The weakness of this pathway seems problematic for younger children. The pathway back for a child seems likely to be after the fact.
There is a risk of pathologizing social skills if one comes away from Clayton’s book thinking that fawning is only a negative characteristic of society. Pedophilia is a terrible societal malady, but society cannot function or improve without fawning.
REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE 