字體：小中大

gift from the sea

2019/03/31 18:46:34瀏覽668｜回應0｜推薦6

Writer:

Anne Spencer Morrow was born in New Jersey, her father was a partner in J.P. Morgan & Co., Ambassador to Mexico and United States Senator from New Jersey. Her mother was a poet and teacher, active in womens education who served as acting president of her alma mater.

Morrow and Lindbergh were married. She became the first American woman to earn a first-class glider pilots license. Lindbergh was a courageous aviator whose solo flight across the Atlantic made him a hero of immense proportions. Both together explored and charted air routes between continents. The Lindberghs were the first to fly from Africa to South America and explored polar air routes from North America to Asia and Europe.

Their first child got kipnapped to death. They moved to England and Fracne. While in Europe, the Lindberghs came to advocate isolationist views which led to their fall from grace in the eyes of many.

In this period, Anne met the famous French writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, author of the famous novella The Little Prince, and the two had a secret affair.

Story:

In this inimitable, beloved classic—graceful, lucid and lyrical—Anne Morrow Lindbergh shares her meditations on youth and age; love and marriage; peace, solitude and contentment as she had a vacation by the sea. Drawing inspiration from the shells on the shore, Lindbergh’s musings on the shape of a woman’s life bring new understanding to both men and women at any stage of life. A mother of five, an acclaimed writer and a pioneering aviator, Lindbergh casts an unsentimental eye on the trappings of modernity that threaten to overwhelm us: the time-saving gadgets that complicate rather than simplify, the multiple commitments that take us from our families. And by recording her thoughts during a brief escape from everyday demands, she helps readers find a space for contemplation and creativity within their own lives.

With great wisdom and insight Lindbergh describes the shifting shapes of relationships and marriage, presenting a vision of life as it is lived in an enduring and evolving partnership. A groundbreaking, best-selling work when it was originally published in 1955, Gift from the Sea continues to be discovered by new generations of readers. With a new introduction by Lindbergh’s daughter Reeve, this fiftieth-anniversary edition will give those who are revisiting the book and those who are coming upon it for the first time fresh insight into the life of this remarkable woman.

The sea and the beach are elements that have been woven throughout Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s life. She spent her childhood summers with her family on a Maine island. After her marriage to Charles Lindbergh in 1929, she accompanied him on his survey flights around the North Atlantic to launch the first transoceanic airlines. The Lindberghs eventually established a permanent home on the Connecticut coast, where they lived quietly, wrote books and raised their family.

After the children left home for lives of their own, the Lindberghs traveled extensively to Africa and the Pacific for environmental research.(R. 7)

Highlights vs self- reflection:

1.Channelled Whelk (What the best attitude to a mom):

(1)p.17: May the outward and inward man be at one. I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.

(2)p.29:Set my mind on a journey, up an inwardly winding spiral staircase of thought.

2.Moon Shell(What is the woman’s role in the family)

(1)p.52:Woman must be still as the axis of a wheel in the midst of her activities, that she must be the pioneer in achieving this stillness, not only for her own salvation, but for the salvation of family life, of society, perhaps even of our civilization.

3.Double-Sunrise(What’s the best relationship in the family)

(1)p.57: It is free of ties or claims, unburdened by responsibilities, by worry about the future or debts to the pat.

(2)p.56:It was a gift, freely offered, freely taken, in mutual trust. The pure relationship, how beautiful it is!

4.Oyster Bed(What about middle years of marriage)

(1)p.72: It is untidy, spread out in all directions, heavily encrusted with accumulations and, in its living state

(2)p.73:Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.

(3)p.80: One may outgrow even the oyster shell.

5.Argonauta(How to deal with empty nest syndrome)

(1)p.87: She must work alone and cannot count on much help from the outsider, eager as he may be in pointing out the way.

(2)p.85:They do not serve partial and limited ends. Their value lies entirely in themselves and for the same reason transcends all other values. And that is because they are relations of persons as persons.

(3)p.88: She must become whole. She must come of age by herself. This is the essence of “coming of age”-to learn how to stand alone.

6.A Few Shells(How about the life attitude)

(1)p.106:One cannot collect all the beautiful shell on the beach. One moon shell is more impressive than three. There is only one moon in the sky.

(2)p.112:Simplicity of living, as much as possible, to retain a true awareness of life. Time of solitude and sharing. Closeness to nature to strengthen undrestading and faith I the intermittency of life: life of spirit, creative life and the life of human relationships.

7.The Beach At My Back(How to say good-bye)

(1)p.116: I believe the heart is infinite-modern communication loads us with more problems than the human frame can carry.

(2)p.118:The good past is so far away and the near past is so horrible and the future is so perilous, that the present has a chance to expand into a golden eternity of here and now.

(3)p.120:The waves echo behind me. Patience-faith-openness, is what the sea has to teach. Simplicity-Solitude-Intermittency…But there are other beaches to explore. There are more shells to find. This is only a beginning.

Golden Sentence:

1.p.102:The sea recedes and returns eternally.

2.p.112:The shells will remind me, they must be my island eyes.

Conclusion:

1.p.11: The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. One should lie empty , open, choiceless as a beach-waiting for a gift from the sea.

2.p.29: The final answer I know is always inside. But the outside can give a clue, can help one to find the inside answer. One is free, like the hermit crab, to change one’s shell.

3.p.126: All the inner and outer exploration a woman has done earlier in life pays off when she reaches the abandoned shell. One has to come to terms with oneself not only in a new stage of life but in a new role. Life without children, living for oneself-the words at first ring with a hollow sound.

4.p.128: For women, much of this new awareness is due to the Women’s Liberation movement.

5.p.130:It does lead to greater independence and cooperation in action.

Gift from the Sea Questions by Janio :

1.What the best attitude to a mom?

2.What is the woman’s role in the family?

3.What’s the best relationship in the family?

4.What about middle years of marriage?

5.How to deal with empty nest syndrome?

6.How about the life attitude?

7.How to say good-bye?