Lenten Adventurers Book Review: The Sisters of Sinai

The Sisters of Sinai: how two lady adventurers discovered the hidden gospels

by Janet Soskice, 2009

Review (c) by Garnette Arledge    February 26, 2016

Twin sisters born in 1843 in strict Presbyterian Scotland, during Victoria’s reign, travelled by ship, donkey, carriage and on foot against all sage advice by Cambridge male biblical scholars, to discover lost gospels.

They authenticated the earliest known written Christian gospel manuscripts to 90 ce and turned up staid scholarship of their time.

Sounds like fiction and it would be except they were fabulously wealthy, spoke and wrote a dozen pan-Eastern languages and were indomitable. Literally. Blocked from even attending college, much less teaching, they simply (ha!) equipped expeditions with camels, drivers, tea services, full china place settings, linen sheets, grand dresses and went to the Sinai peninsula. Before any other scholars notice, they were welcomed and most importantly, trusted with precious secret and sacred sheepskin documents almost two centuries old. The desert monks, cenobic men living in austerity guarded their hidden treasures with the same zealousy in which the sisters pursued them.

Perhaps that’s why the monks trusted the women. The sisters honored the secret hoardings (manuscripts tossed down into a deep locked room from upper balconies for hundreds of years). In no particular order. And the sisters persisted, had afternoon tea, brought out suddenly willing male scholars to work alongside, deciphering and cataloguing the treasures. Naturally these men tried to claim credit. But monks refused to deal with them. The sisters persisted.

It’s a rollicking good story, as true of any truth is. I see Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. I couldn’t put it down, 300 pages filled with magic, perseverance, derring-do in a Scots Presbyterian manner. Eventually, as they were barred from teaching at Cambridge, they built a Women’s College next door. They wrote books. They were consulted. They married, each in turn briefly but mostly it was just the two of them with paid desert guides who may or may not  have been reliable. Sand, horrible odors from both the old documents and the monks, as well as the pack animals.

Inspiring. Thoroughly researched. Well written. Although I did expect Lord Peter Wimsey and his founder Dorothy L. Sayers accompanied by Agatha Christie to come riding over the dawn-lit sands for breakfast - all five courses naturally. The only flaw is that I finished it too quickly.

Greenwillow review

Greenwillow

review © 2/23/2016

by Garnette Arledge

One gloomy Saturday in January my local library held their Book Sale. I ‘greatly admire’ local libraries sometimes even holding onto a book until it’s overdue just to give the fine. Of course I’m a member and contributor also. For there are treasures to found in village libraries, well worn books written in, perhaps a kinder age to readers’ psyches.

Like it was waiting for me, spring be praised, there was Greenwillow by B.J. Chute, published in 1956 by E.P. Dutton and Company before it was just Dutton. With line drawings of 19th Century English village life. Turns out it was a famous book on its own becoming a Broadway play with Anthony Hopkins. So it is in the genre of Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West. Perhaps even a bit of a Jane Austen-like.

Village life, rival clergy who have separate entrances, belief systems and service times into the one Anglican church. Pub. Old Ladies. Young Love, seemingly thwarted by tradition. Descriptive language so the reader can see the seasons, the flowers, the food, the hopes and dreams thanks to the author who was once president of Penwomen. Even a whimsy -- a mysterious call of the East that afflicts one family’s eldest son, a bit like Beau Geste by P.C. Wren. I could smell the tea cakes, root for the animals, love the folk. Reminds me of how Downton Abbey will be missed.

Greenwillow is a nostalgic reading treasure. It’s on Amazon, hold on, one copy for more than a thousand dollars. I’m thankful for bookstores but my heart belongs to the village library.

Dying Well, like Living Well, calls for companionship for the whole journey

Staying Sharp

Review by Garnette Arledge

Staying Sharp was never one of my goals: kindness, compassion, creativity, integrity, saying yes to life are. I can right off the top of my head imagine twenty, at least, attributes I hope to stay with me all my life. What appealed instantly in this book is it’s tag line: 9 Keys for a Youthful brain through modern science and ageless wisdom.

Wisdom. Ah, most definitely yes. So I forgave the writers, Henry Emmons, MD, and David Alter, PhD, for the chilly title. Who wants to be like a knife or an axe, or even a spear? And yes I do recommend this for its seeming goal: to calm fears of Alzheimer’s with a non-toxic mix of science and wisdom. Each chapter highly recommends meditation for example. For calming the mind, emotions and definitely the body. Further I was interested in the varied medical research cited. Like:

“Many scientists have come to believe that while we sleep the space between our neurons expands, allowing a cranial sewage network—the glymphatic system—to flush the brain of waste products that might otherwise not only prevent memory formation but muck up our mental machinery and perhaps eventually lead to Alzheimer’s. Failing to get enough sleep is like throwing a party and then firing the cleanup crew.”

I did learn this in hatha yoga that a good night’s sleep is vital to brain health. May I add, vital to the mind's health as well. Let’s remember the mind is not us but a function that we can heal, caress and support through practice. Yoga is not only physical - but you know that. Qigong and Tai Chi, which the authors also recommend, smoothes out the mind’s brain waves as well of physical energy. Still there comes a time when the physical mind falters perhaps. Then with meditation practices, the Big Mind, the intuitive, soul friend, the observer may step forward. So practicing Qi cultivation, breathing consciously and going beyond the mechanical mind is encouraged. I’m relieved to see this teaching in a pop-medical self-help book. So I recommend it for a quick read.

That’s why as a companion/doula with the aging, I sign up for the whole journey until the last breath. Because I know that even when the mind has faltered, the whole person is still intact and worthy of companionship. As do you.