Pudd'NHead Wilson

Whenever I clear out my office or go through the bookcase or boxes of books the children have left behind to keep and store, I get happily stuck reading one.  Today it was Pudd'Nhead Wilson.  I read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the original narrative to our children when they were in elementary school. I remember it was challenging to read the words of the southern country characters regardless whether it was an uneducated slave jargon or southern accent. The kids laughed as I would read and then I would explain what I just read.

Perhaps this is why I found Pudd'Nhead Wilson among the books in this box, maybe that original reading sparked further for our son. Either way I did enjoy reading it today.  One thing I was pleased to see was that Samuel Clemens does recognize the soft effect of a female in harsh situations to soothe a man's mind. Maybe it is because I'm sensitive to this and look for the two sexes to be good for one another in everything I witness.

Mark Twain is one and the same as Samuel Clemens. He does the greatest writing about slavery in early America and the conversations of people.  The incidents he tells of the cruelty to slaves intertwined with his storyline always bring a tear to my eye.  Horrible that "Christian" folks could inflict such injustice to the subservient population...but then I have lived and seen this is true of human nature everywhere today.  Bible thumping in one hand, interpreting the verses to justify their own actions of selfishness that cause another to suffer as they sit in the pew every Sunday. We have all seen this one time or another. 

It takes a kind heart and strong constitution to bear up and move on when such wrongdoings have been forced upon you.  And the Negros seem to have an unfathomable will to survive and do move on as one has to in life. 

Scene after scene described in the book has a mistaken judgment of another's character based on each person's own core values. Many times the good hearted one naively thinks the scorched conscious of another is better than it actually is, and suffers the consequences of the mistake. (Wisdom and boundaries come with experience to protect one's self.)

What we are beginning to understand is that suffering inflicted upon others by us, began first by inflicted suffering upon ourselves.  The same goes for kindness, kind to self, kind to others.

Thankful to be aware of this and now working to rid myself and the world from further harm. If peace is to be, let it begin with me.