House, hunting

A book that should grace every library

A special friend of mine, Donna Darovich, recently gave me a book that I've come to deeply treasure: "The Wisdom of the Native Americans," a compelling collection of Native Americans' quotes compiled and edited by an equally compelling author/sculptor, Kent Nerburn, whose own spirituality soars. As I've learned more about him, I'm inclined to put Nerburn in a league with John Eldredge, whose spirituality and ability to give voice to his heart and soul simply astound me. Eldredge's thoughts and writing gifts are simpy, truly awesome. I'd recommend his work to anyone, particularly to those who are suffering.

You who know me know that I love my Native American heritage, which is part Cherokee and part some other nation or nations that I may never know because my families worked hard to eradicate any connection to that heritage out of fear and shame. They nearly succeeded. I wrote about that a while back in a Sunday cover story for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. But I digress.

Out of love and respect for Native Americans and response to his heart's calling, Nerburn has given us a book filled with the majesty of Native American views. There's no saccharine stereotype at work, just unvarnished, point-blank thoughts about a wide range of matters.

His book belongs in any library, particularly one in which space is devoted to Native Americans. In this post and more to follow, I'd like to share a sampling of the quotes that Nerburn found. Here's one I especially value:

"We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God, as the Catholics and Protestants do. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth. But we never quarrel about God. We do not want to learn that."

-- Chief Joseph, Nez Perce

What's wrong with this envelope?

For a good while, we readers have seen typos cropping up in places once protected by a sacred caste -- proofreaders. They operated with authority and an equally sacred mandate: Catch typos and anything, from incorrect grammar to questionable facts, that would compromise commitment to fairness, accuracy and balance, a.k.a., credibility.

We miss proofreaders, particularly when finding typographical errors in books, of all places. But it isn’t surprising to find typos in books. Once upon a time, encountering a typo in a book would have shocked and dismayed a reader. Typos were shameful proof of lapses in quality and pride. They were horrifying, sort of like the sight of a colleague at work sporting bed hair and reeking of morning breath.

Such thoughts flared anew recently on noticing this envelope in the daily mail. Perhaps the sender, a non-profit organization, had noticed the typo and regretted the error but couldn’t afford to have the envelopes corrected and reprinted. Whatever the reason, the typo disrupted the organization’s sales message. I didn’t open the envelope.

I’ll watch for more instances of typos, and if you come across an example, send it to me. Together, we can form a typo patrol. And if you’re interested in typos, check out shamefultypos.com, a wonderful, if saddening, site.