One year off - A book review

One Year Off by David Cohen is a book about the Cohen family, who sell all of their worldly possessions and travel around the world together for a year. The book is based on emails sent to family and friends during this year. Mr. Cohen focused quite a lot on the relationships in the family and that made the story more interesting than if it had been simply a travel dialogue. While Mr. Cohen and his wife had worked from home and in the home before beginning this adventure, spending a year together and with their children in such close intimacy was rightly understood to up the anty of their relationships. Before even beginning the journey this area of relationships was seen as one of largest concern. They were so concerned about their marital relationship and lack of alone time for a year that they took along a nanny so that they would be able to be together occasionally. They began their journey driving from California to Arizona. This was the first "car" trip for the children and it had all the drama and irritation of any family road trip. The children fought and the parents were thinking maybe they were crazy for considering a year of it! Fortunately, the parents adjusted and so did the children.

There are several laugh out loud moments. Two of my favorites occurred in the first part of the journey to Arizona. With all the fighting between the children and tension in the car the parents struggled to come up with a plan. One of the ideas was that they would purchase a big bag of candy at the beginning of the day with a promise to the children that they could have the candy at the end of the day. Any time they children fought they would then take a big handful of the candy and throw it out the window. They decided against this for two reason. The first was out of concern that they would be arrested for throwing handfuls of candy out the car window and the second was because no parent in their right mind would give their kids a big bag of sugar at the end of the day. They eventually settled on a different idea. The other moment of hilarity occurred once they settled into their hotel after having seen the GRAND CANYON. The parents decide to go out to eat and to leave the children with the nanny for the evening. The oldest daughter dramatically exclaims, "You never take me anywhere!".


At one point in the book David Cohen articulates that, " it struck me that popular culture - even good popular culture has so thoroughly pervaded our lives that it's now practically impossible to experience new places and adventures without immediately comparing them to something we've seen in a movie or on television. Fortunately, Kara and Willie don't have this problem at least not yet. Whey they were four and five years old, Devi enrolled them in Waldorf preschool. The school asked parents to insulate their children from television and movies and not to buy them clothes festooned with cutesy media characters. Initially, I thought these rules were elitists nonsense a sort of cultural superiority but in the end I realized that they kept the delicate garden of a child's imagination from being weed whacked by violent action figures or the latest Disney confections. Because of this early training, I believe that Kara and Willie can still encounter new places and experiences with imaginations that are largely unsullied by seductive preocessed Hollywood imagery. " PG 63-63 I am always fascinated when non Christians understand this concept at its fundamental basis in a clearer and more articulate manner than Christians.

The family intended to home school during their year traveling the world. They took their books with them and it is mentioned twice. Once when they were in a house boat floating down a river in Germany and again when they reach Australia. They specifically chose to settle in Sydney because they were feeling that "it had become imperative" to get their children, "proper schooling." There are many reasons they felt that this decision was the right one. They felt like they had failed. They felt like they did not have the patience and eventually decided that professionals existed for a purpose. "We decided that we didn't want to ruin our once-in-a lifetime trip with two hours of pure hell each day." Even if they had never cracked a single book in that year the children would have received an education. In fact they received a much broader and more liberal education than would have taken place in any set of textbooks. Reading a book is a wonderful thing. I love to read books, they take me to places and thoughts that I might never be able to see or experience first hand. Seeing them first hand, experiencing them in real time will create in our minds something no amount of imagination or books ever will. In the end they returned home and when asked if they would do it again he replied, "In short, we shared an experience that Kara, Willie, Lucas, Devi, and I will remember for the rest of our lives, an experience that will always bind us together as only shared experiences can and one that will always make our lives feel special. I don't know what that's worth - but I think its probably priceless."

Recommended Read

I highly recommend the follow work for a short but deep read. What gems there are to be found in this work; The Mother At Home written by John Abbot in 1833.
http://www.gracegems.org/19/Abott_mother.htm

Little Heathens

I picked up an interesting book at the library the other day called Little Heathens; Hard Times and High Spirits On An Iowa Farm During The Great Depression written by Mildred Kalish. I enjoyed my first read through it and will probably go back to glean again from its pages. Full of wonderful memories and insights what impressed me most was her on going acknowledgment of how her character was formed through her interactions with those around her. "For us children, building character, developing a sense of responsibility, and above all, improving one's mind constituted the essential focus of our lives."

She understood that everything that they were given to read was for the purpose of supplying examples of how they were to behave. It was interesting to me that this is something that our culture no longer acknowledges. If only I had a dollar for every time I have heard some expert say that what we watch on TV has no effect on us or our behavior! Although no one ever said to her that education was important or lectured her on getting good grades, she never the less grew up knowing it all the same. Her home had its own library and being able to read was set up as a special treat, something to be desired and looked forward to. The children were given permission to read as an award for getting their chores and housework done.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on oral influence where she explored all of the witticisms that made up her farm life. Many of them I have myself heard, but there was a delightful number that were new to me. These colloquialisms knit their community together and were a vehicle for transmitting the beliefs and values of the culture. Their speech was filled with motto's and maxims that "bombarded" them daily. It was acceptable for the men to use swear words such as hell and d....m but woman were not so freely spoken. "Females were the keepers of cleanliness, sobriety, manners, morals, and decorum." I loved the response of her grandmother when she used the S word to shock her. Her grandmother said, "You now have in your mouth, something that I would not hold in my hand." That's one adage I am going to remember!