Thoughts on "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr

“All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr continues a streak of books that I have read that deal with World War II. For the past couple of years, I have been searching for and reading nonfiction and fiction pertaining to this time period. Historical fiction is fun to read as authors weave their characters into scenes that happened in reality. It is definitely one of my favorite genres.

World War II is so interesting because it forces me to self-reflect on what I would have done if I was a German living during the 1930's and 1940's. Werner, a teenage German orphan, is one of the main characters in the book. You can feel his despair and longing to be successful and to gain knowledge of the world, particularly when it comes to mechanics and electronics. His real world experience working on older radios leads him on a path towards joining the German military as his talent becomes recognized by military leaders. Despite objections from his younger sister, Jutta, Werner decides to go off to a Nazi military training school to further his education and become a soldier. As the war progresses, Werner’s skills in repairing and building radios and using radio frequencies to triangulate positions based on detected radio signals becomes invaluable to the Nazis as they snuff out resistance fighters in Europe. He is confronted with various dilemmas throughout the novel that threaten his success and his humanity.

I found myself pondering many questions about these dilemmas while reading “All the Light We Cannot See”:

• Is achieving success worth more than standing up for what is right?
• What is worth giving up my life for?
• Can I stand up to authority when authority is wrong?
• Can I stand up to the mob when the mob is wrong?
• What am I scared to lose that prevents me from doing the right thing?
• Is choosing to do nothing when I witness wrongdoings just as bad as the wrongdoings?

Contemplating these questions ahead of time will not prepare a person for what they will actually do if ever confronted with difficult situations. This is one reason I hesitate to condemn the actions of the military in combat and police officers while fighting crime in the street. When self-preservation is a natural instinct, everything and everyone else is an afterthought.

In the end, Werner is awestruck with Marie-Laure, another main character, and love ultimately transforms his thinking from his own self-preservation to thinking more about the well-being of another person. However, how far does this thinking go? Does Werner’s self-preservation only now extend to that of Marie-Laure?

“All the Light We Cannot See” is a solid novel with intriguing characters that is entertaining and thought provoking. It reinforces that doing the right thing and resisting despotism is difficult. Despite all the evolutionary progress humans have made, we are just animals looking to live another day.

Memorable Quotes

“After she has gone back to sleep, after Etienne has blown out his candle, he kneels for a long time beside his bed. The bony figure of Death rides the streets below, stopping his mount now and then to peer into windows. Horns of fire on his head and smoke leaking from his nostrils and, in his skeletal hands, a list newly charged with addresses. Gazing first at the crew of officers unloading from their limousines into the chateau. Then at the flowing rooms of the perfumer Claude Levitte. Then at the dark tall house of Etienne LeBlanc. Pass us by, Horseman. Pass this house by.”

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“Don’t you want to be alive before you die?”

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“Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.”

Father's Day Weekend in Red River

A scenic drive, a small mountain town, and a comfortable RV park make for a nice June outing. Over Father’s Day weekend, we took a trip to Red River, New Mexico. Red River is a cool mountain town in northern New Mexico about 40 miles from Taos, New Mexico in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. This was our first official trip in Connie, our “brand new to us” 33 foot Class C RV. This trip was hastily planned and so we booked the only available site at Roadrunner RV Resort that is located 1 mile from town. We opted to stay there since our family was there as well.

Preparation for our trip was surprisingly easy. We only stayed Friday - Sunday so we did not need much to get us through the weekend. Roadrunner RV Resort has full hookups so we did not have to concern ourselves with filling up Connie’s fresh water tanks and we had already packed most of our camping supplies. All we had to do was get the refrigerator turned on (push a button) and load up our food and beverages. I did add some water to the fresh water tank for the toilet in case we needed to use it on the short drive over to Red River from Albuquerque.

One of the neat things about this trip is the drive. It is about 3.5 hours but the varied terrain going from Albuquerque to Red River is interesting to observe. The route took us from Albuquerque to Santa Fe to Espanola, north to Taos and Questa, and finally, east to Red River. The most boring leg of the trip is the Albuquerque to Espanola stretch, mostly because my wife and I have driven this route so many times to visit family. However, Espanola to Red River is beautiful!

Things get interesting once out of Espanola and headed up the mountain past Velarde. The drive is along the mountain side on a 2-lane highway that borders the Rio Grande River. This stretch of river is very popular for rafting so it is fun to watch the many groups of rafters headed down the river bobbing up and over the rapids. During wet years (yes, we have those in New Mexico) the river can look absolutely violent with its white capped rapids as it rages southward. Unfortunately, this year, New Mexico has been dry so the river looked lower than usual and not as lively. Some of the climbs are pretty steep but overall, the drive up the mountain is not too bad even in a loaded RV. One of the coolest sights is a few miles out of Taos. After climbing over a steep incline, you can see the Rio Grande Gorge. It is quite the spectacle looking out over the flat mesa and seeing a large crevice cut through it. If you have never driven over the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge west of Taos, I highly recommend it!

Circumventing the Taos Pueblo due to construction was actually a treat. All the times I had visited Taos I never ventured much from the main town. Having to take State Road 240 gave us a chance to survey the “suburb” neighborhoods of Taos. There were a lot more houses out on the western end of Taos than I thought. The land is pretty open as well with a lot of the houses sitting on large plots of land. The road needed some work but it added to the rustic feel of the area.

My favorite part of the drive was from Questa to Red River. At this point, you are in the mountains again and it is very green! I was surprised how green it was considering the drought conditions. It is gorgeous country. Once in Questa, we took NM-38 east to Red River. There are some great US National Forest Campgrounds off 38. All of them were closed due to the lack of rain, but I believe they are now open. I would definitely stay at these campgrounds as they are set within pine trees and are near hiking trails and the town of Red River.

We drove into Red River and had to go through town to get to Roadrunner RV Resort. Surprisingly, Red River was pretty quiet this weekend despite a wine festival going on at Brandenburg Park. The campground closures probably had something to do with the lack of crowds. Roadrunner RV Resort is popular and for a good reason. Their check-in process is smooth and flawless. You drive up and you are greeted at their gate by someone with all the information you need about the park and Red River without having to park and leave your vehicle. This is so convenient when traveling around in a 30’ plus RV. The sites are close together, but most RV parks are set up this way. The best sites are on the south end of the park, which includes an “over 18 only” area and some of the more spacious sites that back up to the river (sites 59-70). Most of my family had these sites. The reservation process can be done on-line on Roadrunner RV Resort’s website.

Roadrunner is set up nicely for families. They have tennis courts, a playground, a dog run, and multiple road loops that make it difficult to speed, allowing people to walk around the park without having to worry about reckless drivers. There are quite a few sites with trees and shade and most sites will accommodate large rigs. From my experience, the 30-Amp, water, and sewer connections are all conveniently placed and service is stable. They also offer free Wifi but for a $5 per day charge, the Wifi is much faster and more reliable. I give Roadrunner RV Resort 2 thumbs up!

Most of our time on Friday was spent setting up camp, testing out all of Connie’s features, and finishing up some work tasks that I had to get done (the reason I paid for Wifi!). One of the things that I immediately noticed with a motorhome compared to a tent and a popup camper is just how simple everything is to set up! Within 20 minutes we had the connections going, the slides out, and Connie leveled to perfection. My wife did not yell at me once! It was glorious. 😀

On Saturday, we decided to visit Red River and check out the wine festival. We leashed up the dogs, put on our sweaters due to the cloudy, fresh weather, and started the less than 1-mile walk into town from Roadrunner. It was perfect weather and miraculously, much needed rain started falling and continued on-and-off until Sunday. The wine festival was pretty small and we were kicked out within 20 minutes because our dogs were not very well-behaved, according to security. No matter though. The 2 wines I sampled were not worth writing about. It is hard to beat the wines from Gruet, Acclaimed, and M'tucci's Rosso (I am a red wine kind of guy). We spent most of the afternoon wandering around town, watching the family’s kiddos have fun on go carts, checking out the shops, and scoping out the breweries and restaurants for dinner. I guess the dogs were better behaved because we received no other complaints. 😀 Once we decided on plans for the evening we grabbed a coffee from Steam Coffee and Tea and hiked back to Roadrunner in a steady drizzle.

We rested for a few hours and by early evening we started getting ready to head out. We set the AC in Connie to a comfortable 75 degrees for the dogs (their first test alone in the RV) and got picked up by my cousin to head back into town to eat at Brett’s Bistro. Folks, if you go to Red River and do not eat at Brett’s, you are missing out! Our entire family met up there and everything that was ordered from salads to steaks was absolutely delicious! Make sure to go hungry because the portions are massive. My wife and I ordered the chicken fried steak and got the “large” plate to share rather than the “extra large” and it was more than plenty to feed the both of us. The meat was perfectly cooked, no grease, minimal fat, and no nervy bites. The mashed potatoes were tasty and the vegetables were not overly fried. Would I go back? Most definitely! And I will try the filet mignon!

After dinner, we (the entire family) walked over to Red River Brewing Company and Distillery for dessert and drinks. The weather was cooler and still pretty wet but manageable. The nice patio at Red River Brewing also had a huge outdoor fire pit that gave off plenty of heat to hang out outside and enjoy the mountain scenery. Everything was perfect! My wife and I ordered their beer flight to start and could not have been happier. All the beers were very good and after wiping out the flight, I ordered the “Bad Medicine Honey DIPA” and sipped that while waiting for my carrot cake. The carrot cake was good and not too sweet. I enjoyed it. However, the dessert winner by far was the pecan pie cobbler. Yum!

The moment of truth came later in the evening when we went back to camp to see how the dogs fared alone in Connie. As we walked up to Connie, Baxter and Beau were sitting in the passenger seat looking out the window. We opened the door and Josie was laying down on the sofa. We looked around and everything was intact! They passed the test with flying colors!

Like most camping trips, we wish we could have stayed one more day, but responsibilities. 😞 Red River, New Mexico is a cute, mountain town with good restaurants and where outdoor activities abound. For our next trip to the area, I would love to try to hit the hiking trails and try some fishing out at Fawn Lakes or in the Red River. As for Connie the RV, I think she is going to work out just fine.

US Government and Roe vs Wade

 

Image courtesy of CLEANPNG.com

The United States of America is an interesting place with a complex system of government that seems dysfunctional and full of conflict. Many times the complexity results in many laws and regulations left in legal purgatory with no hope of being passed. Most US citizens lament this fact and accuse the government of being broken. But is it?

  To understand what is going on in US current events, it helps to understand how the federal government is set up and why it was set up the way it is. The federal government consists of 3 separate, but equal, branches of government: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial. The executive branch consists of the President, Vice President, Cabinet, and most federal agencies. The legislative branch is the House of Representatives and the Senate, which together, comprise the Congress. Finally, the judicial system is made up of the courts with the most infamous being the Supreme Court. Each of these branches have specific roles to fill, and by law, should not overreach their role by assuming the role of another branch. In addition, the roles are set up in such a way that a system of checks and balances is created that makes certain that the power of each branch is never exceeded. This design makes conflict inevitable and seems to be exactly what the Founding Fathers of the United States wanted in order to make sure the federal government was held in check.

  The most interesting branch of the federal government, however, is the Supreme Court. Tasked with interpreting laws made by the legislative branch, the judicial branch of government has an important oversight role in determining what legislation may be violating the Constitution. The lower courts usually make determinations on the lawfulness of a piece of legislation before the law is sent to the Supreme Court for a final ruling if an appeal process reaches this point. What the Supreme Court says is the final ruling on the law. If another law is brought forward to the Supreme Court that has legal precedent, many times the Supreme Court will let the precedent stand. However, the Supreme Court can overrule the precedent, which results in a change in the law as was done recently with the overturning of Roe vs Wade.

  Growing up Catholic, attending Catholic school from Kindergarten to 12 grade, and having a pro-life family has always caused me to question the decision of Roe vs Wade. I became curious about abortion in eigth grade and where the legality of such a practice began. During my eighth grade year, I started reading the Constitution and researching why the Supreme Court ruled the way they did, making abortion legal despite no explicit statement in the Constitution concerning the right to privacy. It seemed to me then, as it does now, that a very lenient interpretation of the Constitution was required to get to the decision. My feeling is the Supreme Court took a case and created a federal law based on weak Constitutional backing, making abortion legal and even going so far as to define pregnancy trimesters in order to specify the time periods when an abortion can be regulated and when it cannot. The behavior of the Supreme Court during this 1973 ruling seemed more legislative in nature than judicial.

  When the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade a few weeks ago, I was not surprised. When something is declared lawful based on implied arguments and is then codified in the courts and not through the legislative branch, it is only a matter of time when those implicit arguments can be countered and overruled as a bad judicial decision. From a legal standpoint, the overturning of Roe seems like a valid legal action. From a social standpoint, the negative and positive effects of this ruling will be felt across the country. At some point, the United States Congress will need to create laws that address the various issues that abortion spans, including:

• At what point in life is a person a person?
• When does a person have Constitutional rights?
• A biggie: Do US Citizens have a right to privacy and should it be put into federal law and maybe even added as another Constitutional Amendment?
• What extent can a US state outlaw its citizens from crossing state lines to do something legal in another state despite being illegal in their own state?

The Great Reset

 It has been 2 years since the COVID-19 pandemic started and with life finally beginning to get back to normal, I sit here and cannot help but be grateful for what I consider my “Great Reset” that 2020 brought upon me. Because of the draconian lockdowns, many of the things that I liked to do were taken away overnight all in the name of “2 weeks to stop the spread!” However, “2 weeks to stop the spread” provided me the opportunity to appreciate my family, get back to the outdoors and camping, and get creative with my workout routine that had gotten staler than a loaf of bread left on the kitchen counter.

The best outcome of the pandemic lockdowns was definitely the time spent together with my family. My son came home from school in Minnesota in March 2020 and stayed home until August 2020. This was the longest stretch that he had been home since 2016! Although he got royally screwed out of the end of his Senior year of high school, I loved having him back in the house again. The conversations, laughter, arguments, and the full house were a blessing I will never take for granted. Because we had planned to have a graduation party at our house later in the summer, my son, daughter, wife, and I spent much of March through June working in the yard together. It was amazing how much we accomplished and we had our yard looking the best that I could remember since we moved in in 2013. Picking up leaves, trimming trees and bushes, sweeping, hauling away trash, planting new shrubs and trees, and making small repairs around the house were quite the bonding experience. It is quite surprising how hard work can bring a family closer together. I do not know how they feel about it, but I get sappy looking back at the spring of 2020. **tear drop**

Because of the kids’ participation in sports, our family camping trips came to a screeching halt sometime in the early 2000’s. Soccer and gymnastics practices, matches, meets, and out-of-state travel took much of the weekends and vacation time that we had. As a result, camping became a fond memory. With everything locked down, the itch to get out of the house was definitely needing to be scratched. Camping became a perfect outlet. By June 2020, it was clear looking at data widely available that the COVID-19 virus was affecting elderly and those with health issues more severely than young to middle aged healthy persons so we took our chances and hit the road to the great outdoors. I am glad we did because camping memories are some of the best a family can make. We bought an “instant cabin” tent from Costco and camped off forest roads with cows out to pasture in the Jemez Mountains near Fenton Lake, drove to a new destination near Chama at Trujillo Meadows where the kids created their own boat out of their air mattress to float in the reservoir, we met friends in Heber, Arizona at a cabin and played board games, cornhole, horseshoes, and beersbee, we discovered the beauty of Pagosa Springs and the nearby Teal Campground next to Williams Creek Reservoir, and we ventured off to the other side of the Jemez Mountains near Cuba and enjoyed a new forest road spot suggested by a good friend. Mother Nature refreshes the soul, makes the stress of civilization go away, and allows the mind to wander. The summer of 2020 will definitely be one I will not forget.

Finally, COVID-19 really did something strange to me that was completely unexpected. It made me miss the gym IMMENSELY! I never truly knew just how much being active kept my mind in a stable state. When gyms locked down, I took a couple of weeks off from working out, mainly due to all the yard work we were doing. I did notice, however, that the yard work was not satisfying my need to work out to maintain a healthy state of mind. I like lifting weights and running but without a gym with weights and a treadmill, I was forced to rethink my fitness regimen. I began running outside on the trails near my house and going to a nearby park to do push-ups, lunges, pull ups on the monkey bars, squats, and step ups on the benches. After a few weeks of this, I began feeling physically and mentally well again.

Because I was going to the same park around the same time everyday, I met a young man with a disability who would ride his bike to the park. One of his jobs was to refill the doggie poop bags provided by the City of Albuquerque in the receptacles near the playground. He would tell me the same story every time I saw him about his job at Smith’s and how customers can be real pain. I loved it and it took me back to my time working for the City of Albuquerque Therapeutic Program during college. I will need to do that workout again and see if he still shows up! Since 2020, I have been more consistent with my fitness and have never felt or looked better.

2020 was a difficult year, but somehow we created lasting, positive memories during that time, reminding me of a quote credited to Epictetus: “It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” I cannot agree more.

The Kids Are Leaving. Now What?

Having college-aged kids makes a married couple do crazy things. Unfortunately, or fortunately, my wife and I are no different. Our situation is a little unique, however. Our oldest child - our son - has been living in another state since he was 15 due to his pursuit of soccer glory. Consequently, for the last 6 years, we have been single child parents to our daughter. This past May she graduated high school and is planning on moving from the high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico to the arid, saguaro filled city of Tucson, Arizona for college. This is all great and exciting for the children looking forward to their long, bright futures, but for the elderly parents left at home with each other, there are some adjustments to be made! 

In January 2022, my wife and I began discussing what we were going to do once our daughter moved to Arizona. We both want to travel more, visit the kids as often as possible, and see places we have never been. The other complication is we have 3 dogs: a 14-year old chihuahua/terrier, a 4-year old mutt, and a year old Labrador Retriever. It is very difficult to travel with pets!

Gratuitous Dog Pics

Our decision was to adopt the recreational vehicle life! The next argument….errrr….discussion was what to get. People who know my wife and I know we do not easily agree on anything! This made our search very challenging. At first, we looked at travel trailers. We looked at toy haulers, short, long, slides, no slides, fifth wheels, used, and new trailers. We agreed the toy haulers were nice but the cost of a toy hauler and the cost of the truck to pull it carried a heavy price tag! Also, the wife decided she wanted to drive our RV as well, but did not want to pull a trailer. Now what?

Time to check out motorhomes! We did agree that a Class C is big enough for us and the 3 pups. We would need plenty of storage and it had to look sporty af (or as sporty as a motorhome can look)! :) We ended up test driving 5 Class C RV’s in different price ranges. To get what we wanted, my wife and I discovered we had to go a little larger than we thought and would need slide outs. We also agreed that the Ford chassis looked the best. The Fords also have more torque, which seemed to make the Class C’s, equipped with the Ford engine, get up and go a little better than the Chevy. Plus, the Triton V-10 has been tried and true for a long time.  We also tried out a Mercedes Class C with the diesel engine, but the storage just was not enough. 

On a windy Saturday in April, we decided to go look at a couple of Class C’s we had found on Craigslist. The first one we test drove was a smaller Class C Winnebago that was nice but seemed a tad noisy while driving. My wife did not love it. We were feeling a bit discouraged in our search and were beginning to think that maybe the RV life was not for us. We almost did not go and see the next RV on our list. Thank goodness we did!

We made the drive to Belen, New Mexico to check out a Coachmen Concord. It was a Chevy, but the design of the Concord was very nice. Instead of the boxy look most Class C’s have, this model had a slight tubular shape and the front cap did not protrude over the top of the cockpit. We were intrigued. The owner let us in and we loved the interior design. One slide out contained a U-dinette and a jack knife sofa creating a spacious seating/sleeping area along with the kitchen. My wife loved the counter space. We had not seen counter space like that in any other RV we had looked at previously. The bathroom and shower were sufficiently sized and conveniently located between the kitchen/living area and the master bedroom. The master bedroom also had a slide out creating a nice sleeping space. The windows were nice and big, providing a good view outside the vehicle. The test drive was very nice despite the windy conditions on I-25, and the road noise was much improved compared to the other RVs we had test driven. The only drawback was the RV was not very clean, but everything looked in good working order. We now knew what we wanted and what to look for. Back to searching the Internets!

After a couple of days searching we found a 2016 Coachmen Concord in Anthem, Arizona that seemed to meet all our requirements for a Class C. Without seeing it in person, we made an offer over Easter weekend, had it accepted, and we were proud owners of a Coachmen Concord. My wife named her “Connie”, but said when we are drinking wine, her name is “Constance”. Funny stuff. But anyway, getting Connie back to Albuquerque is a story for a different blog post! Let’s just say that nothing is ever easy!