Books & Movies

Rented "Walk the Line" the other night. I watched it, Hubs didn't. I thought Joaquin Phoenix & Reese Witherspoon were really good; Witherspoon definitely deserved the Oscar she won. My boy liked all the guitar strumming, and clapped along with the guys during the scene at Folsom.

Also, I got some books that I'd ordered from Amazon, and they are definitely worth reading. One is called "Dead in their Tracks", writing the story of immigrants crossing the US-Mexico border -- from their viewpoints and from Border Patrol's. The author actually crossed through the most dangerous part of the AZ desert with 4 Mexican guys to see what they go through to get here. (See if you would be willing to risk all that for your family.) It is really good; he includes pictures of the bodies/bones of folks who've died crossing. Although disturbing, it's worth knowing and caring about. Makes the point that these are human beings. The 2nd book, "Coyotes" is along a similar vein, except the author pretends to be Mexican and travels with his group across the border and all over the US and Mexico. In his preface he writes, "To get to know Mexicans you need to speak their language, be willing to put up with living conditions less comfortable than our own, and especially if you look and were raised as differently from them as I was, you need to believe in the subversive idea that a human is a human, and that human beings everywhere, with a little effort, can come to understand and even like each other." The last book is called "Enrique's Journey", a true story about a teenage Honduran boy whose mother left him to go work in the US and his journey on freight trains through Guatemala, Mexico, and the US to find her. Reading it as a mother, it has had a hugely profound imp63act. As you can +te6l6l, +I'm getting help typing here. Better go for now.