In the Beginning . . .

Some notes from the conception of our club:

CAMI:

I am personally glad to be on this journey with members of at least two of those thousands of lifetimes I have not led. I think three generations of ideas, experiences, and emotions is just about as good as we're going to get, and I will appreciate learning from our accumulated knowledge, as well as from that of the world. . . So, fellow learners, sisters, and matriarchs of my life, I am ready to find these timeless truths with you. I'll try to keep copies of all our correspondence in a safe place. What an amazing record we'll have!!! Let's follow through! Let's encourage each other! Let's also be patient with ourselves, because I've tried to read Don Quixote before, and it's no picnic.

JANICE

. . . I am looking forward to starting a special little journal for this project to keep these letters and any other insights organized somewhat. I loved drawing and painting my map of the world in my Giant Journal. Without being perfectionistic, I tried to get the shapes and proportions right and learned a lot about the relationships of the countries and the finiteness of our world. We learn so much more by applying our own hand.

JULIA

As I worked on my hand drawn map of the world, I had a few thoughts. I am a little person living in an isolated little bubble. All of us in this world have in common the classics. This fact alone should pop that bubble and help to make us feel closer to each other. . . . I have so much to learn about the world, the words that have been written and the philosophies that have emerged. . . . It is very thrilling to begin on a course of study that I have been neglecting. Thanks to C. Fadiman, I understand why the classics are an important part of our heritage. I plan to be diligent, but not hyper, kind to myself, not critical at how dumb I am. . . . Let's share our insights and enjoy this great conversation. Read or scim, concentrate on what really speaks to us and remember this is a LIFETIME reading plan.