"Books that Shifted My Thinking" by CD Burr

Opening a book for the first time often fills me with a subtle wave of adrenaline, similar to the excitement I feel hours before my team's first game of the season.  Unlike a sporting event, my book and I are alone as I cozy into a chair and focus on the first sentence. I'm eager to establish a new relationship with the author, someone who has dedicated years and sometimes decades to write and publish ideas, descriptions, and storylines.  I learn something from nearly every genre — ranging from the classics and entertaining mysteries to poetry and nonfiction tomes with extensive footnotes. 

Occasionally, a book will cause a major shift or transition within me, and I can no longer hold on to an old way of thinking.  Although dozens of books have created shifts, the five books below (three pictured) have firmly established themselves in my psyche.  I often think of these books while writing or making everyday decisions, even though I read two of them over forty years ago.

LET'S HAVE HEALTHY CHILDREN By Adelle Davis. I read this book in 1979 when I was pregnant with my first child.  Davis, described as a "food expert," provides "the vital nutritional dos and don'ts for expectant mothers, babies, and growing children" (1972). I never adhered to Davis's stringent focus on supplements; however, I was impressed with her evidence that sugar caused many health and psychological problems. To the dismay of my grandparents and other relatives, I shielded my toddlers from candy and sodas, allowing a small cookie after meals. I also avoided buying foods containing dyes and preservatives as much as I could. By my third baby in 1986, I occasionally caved to my three children's love of boxed mac and cheese and fruit roll-ups. Davis's premises continue to instill in me a decades-long mindset to observe my body's reaction to foods and to read labels.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee (1960).  I saw the movie in 1964 and read the book three times since 1980. (Not pictured.) This novel laid the foundation for my interest in social justice issues when I was nine.  I could relate to the little girl Scout's curiosity, but it was her father Atticus's courage in confronting racism that continues to inspire me to advocate for equality and justice.

THE NEW INTERNATIONAL STUDY BIBLE (1985). I  have read, studied, and contemplated scriptures and notes in the NIV since I bought it in 1985. (Pictured.) This study bible introduced me to the power of scholarly notes accompanying Judeo-Christian scriptures.  Notes by an ecumenical group of theologians provided me with a deeper understanding of the original meanings. After nearly four decades, I have discovered diverse lenses through which I might interpret the words of numerous biblical voices and writers.  The lens I choose to uphold is that God is the god of love, social justice, healing, and inclusion--connecting with each of us -- rather than a god of retribution who glorifies hate and the killing of innocents.  The Love-Thy-Neighbor lens becomes not only a litmus test for the soundness of a Biblical verse but also the way I want to live my life.  

QUIET: THE POWER OF INTROVERTS IN A WORLD THAT CAN'T STOP TALKING by Susan Cain (2012).  I read this book in 2017. (Pictured.) One powerful cultural message I received growing up was that only extroverts can succeed socially and professionally.  This book allowed me — an introspective, rather timid, and sensitive woman who has never been able to tell a joke in a crowd of friends — to embrace my quiet nature.  After reading this book, I've become more accepting of my innate tendencies to embrace solitude and live a simple, peaceful life. Interestingly, acknowledging the power of my introversion has also made me more comfortable conversing with others. 

THE POWER OF NOW by Eckhart Tolle (2004 edition).  I first read this book in 2002 when I was suffering from a debilitating illness.  (Pictured) I found it interesting but too elementary for my needs. However, twenty years later, in 2022, as I listened to the book while walking on a nature trail, the message created a profound shift in my awareness.  It offers a practice that calms me when the world seems on fire and placates my chattering monkey brain.  For the first time in years, I no longer need a sleep aid. Being present has created awe-filled moments during my nature walks. I listen more attentively when others speak.  The beauty of this practice is that it can coexist with my deeply rooted-Christian faith.   

These five books have influenced my spiritual, physical, and intellectual development. However, I learn from every book I read -- nonfiction or novel. Even when the writing is shallow or challenges my stubborn ideas, specific phrases or words might cause a subtle shift or an awakening.  I do not adopt every attitude, platitude, and idea I come across. 

The awakening is like a crack that allows unique perspectives, ideas, criticisms, and lessons that might bolster my own soulful "knowing" or simply educate me. The more I read, the more I realize I have a lot to learn.  

--C. Burr

This essay appeared in an Elders Speaking blog post in June 2024

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"Papo's Hill" A painting and tribute to Albert Burr by CD Burr

The year before my father-in-law, Albert, passed away, I drove him out to the farm where he grew up north of St. Francis, Kansas.  The ground upon which he lived into his teens is rolling, rocky, and not quite as promising as neighboring farms bursting with abundant wheat and corn fields. 

No stately barn rests on the Burr piece of land, which is now littered with several decaying wood frames and fence posts.  Albert pointed out where their horse was housed in a squatty, leaning, bare-bones barn.  He described fruit trees that once grew behind the boarded-up house.   As a boy, he gathered eggs in a now-roofless chicken house, and eighty years later, he could still shake his head when remembering the dreaded job of cleaning the separator in the tiny cream-separating house (about twice the size of the outhouse).  In the family album, there is an old black-and-white photo of Albert with his dog, Pete, in front of this small building.  

As we drove around the yard, Albert spoke fondly of his home and the great times he had as a boy: a swimming hole not much larger than a ditch, the sticker-laden ground near the hog pen where the Burr Boys played baseball, and a quarter-mile-long hill that sloped into the yard.   He said that the hill was perfect for sledding.  Kids would come from neighboring farms – twenty or more — and use grain scoops as sleds.  Because it was dark, their parents would line up along the snowy hill with lanterns so their children could see the path. The scene must have been magical.  

As Albert weakened and made several trips to the hospital, I decided to paint the sledding-by-lantern-light scene that Albert had described to me almost a year earlier.   I hoped he could see the painting of “Papo’s Hill” before it was too late.   

In June,  Albert was admitted for his final stay in the hospital, where he waited to be transferred to the retirement home.  When I showed him the painting, he lacked the strength to speak, but his face glowed, almost like the lanterns on the canvas. He smiled and nodded.

Our dear father and Papo died June 16, 2014

This tribute first appeared on 12/12/17 on the Elders Speaking group blog.

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Before childhood vaccines: "Our Darling" Cemetery marker (1924)

 

                                                    "Our Darling" Inez Pearl Daniel

My great-grandparents--Alonzo and Evie Daniel--buried three children who might have lived if vaccines and antibiotics had been available. My grandpa's baby sister Inez died during one of the epidemics raging through Tennessee that year (influenza, measles, malaria).

Most healthy kids today might survive these diseases without vaccines, but why risk extremely high temperatures, encephalitis, and pneumonia? Or spread a potentially deadly virus to others with compromised immune systems?

                                               "We Will Meet Again"  Anita Ann Daniel

According to the United States Mortality Statistics of 1926, rural Tennessee recorded the following deaths among white men, women, and children:

Five-year-old Anita Ann Daniel was one of them.

• 362 deaths......Typhoid and Paratyphoid fever
• 86 deaths........Malaria
• 3 deaths..........Smallpox
• 218 deaths......Measles
• 24 deaths........Scarlet Fever
• 226 deaths......Whooping Cough
• 205 deaths......Diphtheria
• 1090 deaths....Influenza
• 26 deaths........Erysipelas (bacterial skin infection usually caused by Streptococcus pyogenes)
• 15 deaths........Meningococcus meningitis
• 1658 deaths....Tuberculosis (respiratory)
• 48 deaths........Tuberculosis (Meninges)
• 150 deaths......Tuberculosis (Other)
• 742 deaths......Cancer
• 60 deaths........Rheumatism

Why so few Smallpox deaths? There was a vaccine for it.

"In heaven there is one angel more" Bobbie H. Daniel

Penicillin and antibiotics might have saved Bobbie, my grandpa's 12-year-old brother, who suffered from a series of kidney infections and "bad tonsils."

What about autism and vaccines?  My 39-year-old daughter has mild autism, which wasn't diagnosed until she was an adult.  When she was a child, psychologists diagnosed only the most severe forms of autism.  Nevertheless, I suspected autism and despite what special ed teachers and school psychologists surmised, I did not think she would "grow out" of the social awkwardness and learning disabilities.  

Thirty-five years ago, I listened to rumors about vaccines and autism and wondered if all of those childhood vaccines may have contributed to her delays.  But I was hesitant to embrace those rumors: My little girl had shown signs as an infant--long before her series of vaccines.  I observed other children in our family, neighborhood, and classrooms who were required to have childhood vaccines to enter the public school system. I thought they all seemed "normal."  As science debunked the theories of vaccine-induced autism, I dismissed those theories and continued immunizing my children.   

From my own experience raising an undiagnosed autistic child in the late 1980s and early 1990s, I am convinced the rise in autism is due to an increase in diagnoses over the past twenty years.   

A shorter version of this essay appears in the  Elders Speaking group blog.

All photos taken at Cedar Valley Cemetery (TN) by CD Burr

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