Jeesh

 I have fantastic cousins on both sides of my family tree. One of the best things my cousin Rob did was to gift a copy of Ender’s Game to my family. I think he was trying to explain himself to us, and because we share DNA he helped me understand myself. I love all things Ender. 

For my Crowhook Curriculum we reach Aquinas in the middle of the Middle Ages. There’s a lot of heavy reading before that, so I do the unintuitive. I simply require the kids to read the one page Aquinas wrote about a just war, and then we take two weeks to analyze Ender’s Game to see if it was a just war. I should probably read the new books on the Formic Wars to see if they might be better suited to the purpose. Darn, what a task, the things we do for children.

I do not usually get out my highlighter when reading fun books, but I kept reaching for that fat boy. There are at least seven things I’ve highlighted this time. My second favorite is “Saving the world isn’t a lifetime career, just a hobby for a while.” The other items were practical, funny or profound. All good things one counts on in a Orson Scott Card book.

The Keas and Ravens could have gone Narnia, but never came close. I’m a certified Narnia fan, but the readership of the two series is quite different. I liked the sentient animals, especially the Keas.

If I could have asked Orson Scott Card to do one thing for me. It would be to make homes for all the lonely, orphan children of Ender’s Game, and he did. I think a lot of us needed pointers on what that looks like, and both the Ender’s series and the Shadow series does a great job of that.

Thank you, Orson, for such beautiful books. I get homed in them.