Apologies to readers -- I simply forgot to post the usual update for Sunday's Breitbart News Sunday program on SiriusXM Patriot 125. I was preoccupied with my deadline for the final final draft of my biography of Rhoda Kadalie.
I had received a critical review from one of the internal auditors approached by the University of Johannesburg. The first reviewer absolutely loved the book; the second reviewer did not, and wrote a detailed set of critical comments.
I suspect that the first reviewer was someone with liberal political views who knew Rhoda from her public persona, and that the second was someone with left-wing views who knew Rhoda more intimately from her struggle days.
It was important to the first reviewer to see Rhoda's story emerge as a challenge to contemporary South African political narratives; it was important to the second reviewer to preserve the legacy of Rhoda's feminist accomplishments.
I have received these kinds of dueling responses to my writing my entire life. My undergraduate thesis was panned by my graders, but won a Harvard prize. My reviewer disagreed strongly with my graduate thesis, but gave it high marks.
The best reaction to my professional writing I have received was a comment that my mother's friend made to her, which is that she (the friend) disagreed with what I said, but was proud that I had said it. People can be like that.
I could have been discouraged by the criticism, but I decided to use it as a motivation to improve the biography. And -- wow -- it is so much better. And longer: including footnotes, the biography is nearly 210,000 words long.
Anyway, if all goes well, the proofs should be done by the end of November, and the biography will go to print before mid-December, the point at which the entire South African economy seems to take a break for a month or so.
Then -- I hope! -- there will be a book tour in South Africa in February. I am eager to get back there to present the book. I am very proud of it, and writing it was a deeply emotional experience as well as an intellectual, scholarly journey.
This week’s portion launches the great story of Abraham, who is told to leave everything of his life behind — except his immediate family — and to leave for “the Land that I shall show you.”
There’s something interesting in the fact that Abraham is told to leave his father’s house, as if breaking away from his father’s life — but his father, in fact, began the journey, moving from Ur to Haran (in last week’s portion). His father set a positive example — why should Abraham leave him?
Some obvious answers suggest themselves — adulthood, needing to make one’s own choices, his father not going far enough, etc.
But I think there is another answer. Abraham (known for the moment as Abram) needs to establish his own household. This is not just about making one’s own choice, but really about choosing one’s own starting point. It’s starting over.
Sometimes we start over in fundamental ways even if much that surrounds us remains the same. Sometimes the journey we have to ...
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
