B176. Personal Inventory 2023

The headline story of my 2023 is a continuation of last year's highlight: the publication of my Childress Cousins book. 2023 was a year of several book-related events including: book signings at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History and Pages Books & Coffee in Mount Airy, NC, and the Mayberry Trading Post in Mayberry, VA; book talks at a Bob Childress history event in Ararat, VA, and a Surry County Genealogical event at the Mount Airy Public Library; and a family reunion where I got to meet one branch of Childress cousins. (You can watch parts of the Bob Childress even here: Remembering Rev. Bob Childress.)

Church

2023 marked my 11th year at First Presbyterian. My church activity this year focused on three main areas: Outlook Sunday School of which I serve as one of five rotating leaders, Stephen Ministry, and the Race Task Force.

As a Stephen Leader, I helped train a new class of Stephen Ministers, my second group. Stephen training is intense, meeting weekly for 2 1/2 hours at a time for about six months, then being commissioned by the church and joining the other Stephen Ministers for twice-a-month meetings. In addition to serving as a Stephen Leader, I also served as a caregiver for much of the year.

With the Race Task Force, I participated in four book discussion groups, a social event, a couple of meetings (when the time didn't conflict with Stephen Ministry), a one-month group about race and spirituality, and an overnight trip to Monticello in Charlottesville, VA.

Travels

Other than regular trips to VA, my travels were few and brief in 2023: the Carolina coast, Monticello, a spiritual retreat at Well of Mercy in Hamptonville, NC, and a book-related getaway to Cana, Ararat, and Meadows of Dan, VA.

 

Writing

I journaled regularly, but otherwise did little writing this year. I wrote an article, which was published in the Salisbury Post and on a local political website, about the Barbie movie, and I wrote several blog posts, which mostly originated as Facebook posts. (You can read the Barbie article here: Barbie, the Movie)

Leisure

For enjoyment: I attended the Salisbury Symphony's Serenading Pianos, the Phoenix Readers' "Hear Me Roar: A Celebration of Women," and a conversation with one of my she-roes, Sister Simone Campbell of the "nuns on the bus," at the South Main Book Company. I met a friend for weekly walks in Hurley Park. I played Words With Friends and Puzzle Page, worked a couple of jigsaw puzzles and my first Lego project, Hedwig the owl. And oh, how I looked forward to monthly Trivia Night with my team "The Brainy Bunch"!

 

Other Highlights

I trained as a poll worker and worked during the October early voting, trained and joined Public School Strong, and joined Women for Community Justice. I attended Board of Elections and Board of Education meetings. I volunteered as a Lee Street Theatre greeter and was a "book" at RCCC's two Living Library events.

 

Health

I continue to deal with torticollis (involuntary neck turn) but do find relief through OMT and yoga. I also still use a left leg brace when walking distances.

The most challenging has been a continuation of the digestive issues that began mid-2022, causing me to throw up periodically. I apparently have a severe allergy to anything dairy, and also need to avoid anything fried, processed, or containing peanuts, and I eat very little sugar. I am learning to eat at home, but eating away from home can be difficult.

I averaged 34 minutes per day (210 hours total) of intentional exercise, consisting mainly of walking, exercise machines, and twice-a-week stretch & balance class (yoga) to which I always looked forward.

Books

I read or listened to 67 books this year, listed here in the order of their publication. Those listed in bold print are especially recommended, and those in red, even more so. Libby, through which I listen to audiobooks, is still my favorite app. Harry Potter was a recurring theme this year in books, a puzzle, and a Legos project, as were black literature and biographies.

The Souls of Black Folk (W.E.B. Dubois, 1903, audio) essays: history, poetry, storytelling at its best

The Good Earth (Pearl Buck, 1931, audio) historical fiction; life of landowner in Chinese village

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (Judy Blume, 1970, repeat, audio) fiction, 12-yr-old girl

Stephen Minister Training Manual Volume 1 (1978, repeat) nonfiction

Kindred (Octavia Butler, 1979, audio) historical fiction, time travel, slavery

Christian Caregiving: A Way of Life (Kenneth C. Haugk, 1984, repeat) nonfiction

Maus I (Art Spiegelman, 1986) graphic novel: bio of a Jewish Holocaust survivor

Beloved (Toni Morrison, 1987, audio) novel about a black family after Civil War

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Gregory McGuire, 1995, audio) fiction

Are You Out There, God? (Sister Mary Rose McGeady, 1996) abandoned children and Covenant House

The Islander (Cynthia Rylant, 1998) youth fiction: loneliness, love, death, dog, mermaid

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky, 1999, audio) youth coming of age novel

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (JK Rowling, 2003, audio) 5th in series; Dolores Umbridge

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince (JK Rowling, 2005, audio) 6th in series; horcruxes, Dumbledore, Snape

Black America Series: Around Surry County (Evelyn Scales Thompson, 2005) nonfiction

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows (JK Rowling 2007, audio) 7th/final in series, horcruxes & deathly hallows

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot, 2010, audio) cells science with a human face

The Kitchen House (Kathleen Grissom, 2010, audio) white servant girl living with slaves, fiction

The New Jim Crow (Michelle Alexander, 2010, audio) mass incarceration, drug war, nonfiction

Between Shades of Gray (Ruta Sepetys, 2011, audio) novel, teen girl, WWII genocide of Baltic people

Transition (Chaz Bono, 2011, audio) autobiography

Quiet (Susan Cain, 2012, audio) nonfiction, introverts

A Nun on the Bus (Sister Simone Campbell, 2014) autobiography

The Hired Girl (Laura Amy Schlitz, 2015, audio) fiction set about 1911; class, Judaism, religion, teen girl

Accidental Saints (Nadia Bolz-Weber, 2015, audio) an inspirational & possibly offensive memoir 

The Other Einstein (Marie Benedict, 2016, audio) historical fiction, Einstein’s wife

Frontier Grit (Marianne Monson, 2016, audio) biographies of 12 frontier women

Glory Over Everything (Kathleen Grissom, 2016, audio) sequel to The Kitchen House

Harry Potter & the Cursed Child (Jack Thorne, 2016) play script set 19 yrs after Rowling series

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter (Kate Clifford Larson, 2016, audio) biography

The Liberal Redneck Manifesto (Crowder, Forrester, Morgan, 2017, audio)

The Reporter Who Knew Too Much (Mark Shaw, 2016, audio) Dorothy Kilgallen biography, JFK

The Five Invitations (Frank Ostaseski, 2017) nonfiction, reframing death for better living

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine (Gail Honeyman, 2017, audio) fiction; childhood trauma, love

Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies . . . (Kate Bowler, 2018, audio) nonfiction, cancer, theology

Front Desk (Kelly Yang, 2018, audio) youth fiction, Chinese-American girl

Cherokee America (Margaret Verble, 2019, audio) fiction set post-Civil War

Rainbow Warrior: My Life in Color (Gilbert Baker, 2019, audio) autobio, history of rainbow flag

64 VW: A Memoir of Growing Up in Ararat, VA (Thomas D. Perry, 2019) entertaining  memoir with a VW Beetle

The Only Woman in the Photo (2020, Kathleen Krull, audio) youth biography of Frances Perkins

Overground Railroad (Candacy Taylor, 2020, audio) traveling while black, green book, nonfiction

When & How to Use Mental Health Resources (Kenneth C. Haugk, 2020, repeat) nonfiction

The Black Church (Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2021, audio) nonfiction

Under the Influence: A Life-Saving Guide to . . . Alcoholism (Milam & Ketcham, 2021)

Surviving the White Gaze (Rebecca Carroll, 2021, audio) memoir of child of color raised by white family

The Lincoln Highway (Amor Towles, 2021, audio) Huck Finn style fiction set in 1954

Eleanor (David Michaelis, 2021, audio) comprehensive Eleanor Roosevelt biography / history

I Have Something To Tell You (Chasten Buttegieg, 2021, audio) autobiography

While Justice Sleeps (Stacey Abrams, 2021, audio) fiction thriller, Supreme Court Justice

No Cure for Being Human (Kate Bowler, 2021, audio) nonfiction, cancer

Wilmington’s Lie (David Zucchino, 2021, repeat) history, white supremacy, coup d’etat & massacre

How the Word Is Passed (Clint Smith, 2021, repeat) understanding our slave narratives

All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days (Rebecca Donner, 2021, audio) bio of Amer woman in nazi resistance

Come Fly the World (Julia Cooke, 2021, audio) PanAm stewardesses: 1960s, Vietnam, sexism; nonfiction

The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. 2021, audio) historical fiction

The Light We Carry (Michelle Obama, 2022, audio) nonfiction, motivational, autobiographical

If God Is Love, Don’t Be a Jerk (John Pavlovitz, 2022, audio) nonfiction

The Myth of Normal (Gabor Mate, 2022, audio) nonfiction

Finding Me (Viola Davis, 2022, audio) autobiography

Crying in the Bathroom (Erika L. Sanchez. 2022, audio) memoir

Beyond the Wand (Tom Felton, 2022, audio) memoir of Draco Malfoy actor

Old Babes in the Woods (Margaret Atwood, 2023, audio) 15 short stories

Hello Beautiful (Ann Napolitano, 2023, audio) fiction: family, love, complexities, Little Women

Master Slave Husband Wife (Ilyon Woo, 2023, audio) true story of slave escape; detailed slave-era history

Spare (Prince Harry, 2023, audio) memoir; insight into lives of British royal family

The Covenant of Water (Abraham Verghese, 2023, audio) well-woven tale of 3 generations in India; fiction

Poverty By America (Matthew Desmond, 2023) poverty is intentional and can be eradicated; nonfiction

Movies (32, listed in order of release year)

Made for Each Other (1939) Jimmy Stewart

Gaslight (1944) drama of psychological manipulation

Some Like It Hot (1959) Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Marilyn Monroe

Charade (1963) whodunit starring Cary Grant & Audrey Hepburn

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) musical starring Debbie Reynolds

Jefferson in Paris (1995) Nick Nolte as Thomas Jefferson

Good Will Hunting (1998, repeat) Robin Williams as psychologist

Bewitched (2005) comedy

Kinky Boots (2006) shoe factory finds new niche

Anna Karenina (2012) based on Tolstoy’s novel

Delivery Man (2013) feel-good comedy

The Book Thief (2013) based  on novel, Nazi Germany

Into the Woods  (2014) retold fairy tales, musical

Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise (2016 PBS) documentary, biography

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 (2016) comedy

Coco (2017, repeat) Day of the Dead, animated

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) romance

Ashes in the Snow  (2018) based on novel “Between Shades of Gray”

Two of Us (2019, Hulu) gay couple living as neighbors

Mack & Rita (2022) comedy; 30-yr-old becomes 70-yr-old

Bros (2022) campy romantic comedy

Elvis (2022) biography from perspective of manager

Spoiler Alert (2022) starring Jim Parsons, cancer, based on true story

Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) cleaning lady wants Dior dress

Women Talking (2023) abused women consider leaving their cultic colony

80 for Brady (2023) comedy, four 80-yr-old women go to Superbowl

Jesus Revolution (2023) story of hippy Jesus movement told by Greg Laurie

Barbie (2023) Barbie encounters patriarchy when she has to go to the real world

The Miracle Club (2023) pilgrimage to Lourdes; starring Maggie Smith & Kathy Bates

Wish (2023) Disney animated

Nyad (2023) based on true story of swimmer Diana Nyad

Frybread Face and Me (2023, Netflix) Native American boy visits Navajo grandmother

TV

I watch little TV but did have Hulu and Netflix access a couple of months each and binge-watched the following:

Abbot Elementary Seasons 1 & 2 (2021-22 Hulu)

Wednesday Season 1 (2022, Netflix)

Call Me Kat Season 3 (2022-23, Hulu)

The Wonder Years Season 2 (2022-23, Hulu)

The Bear Seasons 1 & 2 (2022-23 Hulu)

The 1619 Project (6-part docuseries, 2023, Hulu)

The American Buffalo (Ken Burns 4-hr docuseries, 2023, PBS)

Photos:

1. book signing at Mayberry Trading Post in Mayberry, VA

2. Monticello, Charlottesville, VA

3. along the Prayer Trail at Well of Mercy, Hamptonville, NC

4. Hogwarts jigsaw puzzle

5. Sister Simone Campbell (right) and me

6. great blue heron in Hurley Park, Salisbury, NC

7. books