Monday Book Nook: Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver

I didn’t mean to, but I did – I picked up another Barbara Kingsolver book. I had run out of reading material on my book tour, and – looking down the barrel at another long flight – wanted something I knew was a sure good bet. Turns out the timing of it was impeccable.

I picked Small Wonder, a collection of essays. The book was born the day after 9/11, and grew from a request by a magazine that she write an article about the events – the topic proved too multi-layered for her to be satisfied with one article and so she continued to write until a book was born. I didn’t know this when I bought it, hastily and without reading the back jacket.

I began reading it on the Friday morning that grew into the manhunt of the Boston marathon bombers. My flight was supposed to leave at 8a, getting me home by noon for a quiet Shabbat by myself. Instead my flight was cancelled and I spent the day and most of Shabbat (home at 330am the next day) with American Airlines in a lobby with televisions every 5 feet all tuned to Fox News and the second-by-second coverage of the manhunt. That, and this book.

In the namesake essay Small Wonder Ms. Kingsolver reminds us of the Greek story Jason and the Argonauts and the dragon that, when slain, each of its teeth would germinate in the ground and create another dragon. And each new dragon had another set of teeth that, when slain, germinated into still more until there was an entire army seething with murder and vengeance. Medea, Jason’s love (and as I dream the dream his still, quiet voice) tells Jason that hatred only dies when turned on itself. In other words, violence only begets violence.

There’s a big clue to the way out – what Jason did with this information, but I won’t spoil it for everyone looking to pick up this book. I DO, however, strongly recommend this book as the reflections within are deeply instrumental for the times of chaos and upheaval we face this very moment. After thousands of years of fighting violence with violence, perhaps it is time to find a new strategy that has a more successful ROI.