The Source, by James A Michener: If you read this, you don't have to read the book

In light of my recent adventures abroad, I have summarized my experience with a book review of a novel that fits my voyage to Greece and Israel quite nicely.

The Source
by James A. Michener

It may be difficult to imagine that a ten thousand year history of the Jewish faith could be a #1 bestseller. It may be even more surprising that such a book can grab and hold the attention of a high school student. And although the novel is not without its fair share of tedious passages, the overall “Da Vinci Code” style with which it presents its content is enthralling.

The entire book takes place on a tell (a raised mound of earth some 200 yards long and 71 feet tall) in what is now Northern Israel, near the ancient city of Akko. The 1964 archaeologic dig that begins the novel introduces the amazing quality of this specific site: at some point in time, pagans, Jews, Christians, and Muslims have each occupied this most desirable piece of real estate. What’s more, the tell has witnessed a good majority of the major historical events that have occurred in the Holy Land since 9843 BCE.

The chapters are organized in chronological order, beginning with the oldest and working their way up through history. Although the reverse method of ordering could have been more realistic (archaeologists move backward through time as they uncover new layers of civilization), this way is more logical for one reading the book forwards.

The story of each era is heralded by an archaeological find that indicates a way of life at that time in history. For instance, the first artifact, several sharpened flints used as a sickle for reaping grain, precede a narrative of the first cave dweller to intentionally plant wild grain in a location convenient for harvesting, thereby becoming one of the first farmers in history.

Each mini-novel is infused with familiar societal institutions: the oppression and distrust of women, the wild animal turned tame friend for a young girl, the father desperate for a strong son just like him. This literary device effectively draws the reader in by recounting recognizable traits of legend and modern society.

The author also draws parallels more obviously by interspersing the ancient tales with short chapters about the four main characters working on the dig. These snatches of modernity are mostly limited to the thoughts of one Dr. John Cullinane, the only Catholic working on the dig and, to a certain extent, our hero. His heroic stature is not determined by his faith; rather, by the way he strives to immerse himself in and completely understand the Jewish faith with a slightly unrealistic passion. For instance, he is the only of the four who attends synagogue (as well as church) on Shabbat; the two Jews refuse and the Muslim explains quite drolly, “I find that if I enter a local synagogue dressed in full Arab robes, bow toward Mecca and cry, “Allah is Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet,” I am apt to cause resentment.”

However, the idea that a single place can have been host to so many different civilizations is quite a real one. In Greece, I learned that the Parthenon, after being a temple for Greek pagan worship, acquired a golden dome in its capacity as a Muslim mosque, and later lost its roof entirely under Ottoman rule because a Venetian shell struck the building, which was at the time being used for gunpowder storage. And Caesarea, King Herod’s opulent Roman port and resort city in Northern Israel, became a Crusader town as the Europeans strove to control the Holy Land.

One of the reasons Judaism is unique is because, at least in more conservative synagogues, many of the ancient customs are adhered to. However, one of the themes this book explores is that this unwillingness to change with the times has caused some of Judaism’s former adherents to convert or just to stop practicing. Michener has done a masterful job of capturing both sides: Judaism’s stubborn traditions and its ancient beauty.

DESTINATION: SPRING BREAK

Sunwashed days in a Cancun resort, at the beach, in the pool, at cafes. Wild nights at crazy parties, dancing the night away to the sound of ocean surf. Midnight swims in hotel pools. Such is a typical Spring Break stereotype.

But is it true? Is it realistic? Where are Paly students REALLY going this March?

Exhibit A: Leadership Conference in San Jose. "It could have rained, snowed, hailed, or have been beautiful outside, I wouldn't know: we had to stay inside the hotel at all times."
Exhibit B: Brussels, Belgium and Oxford, England. "Right now it's two degrees above freezing."
Exhibit C: HAWAII!!! [No comment.]

As appealing as all these exotic locales may sound, Palo Alto's weather has been nothing to sneeze at in the past few days. Stubbornly sunny days should continue most of the week, with a slight chance of precipitation on Wednesday.

If you're looking for a pleasant lunch location to soak up some rays right here in Palo Alto, Stanford's Cantor Arts Museum has a great cafe that offers outdoor seating with plenty of sun.

Staying home doesn't have to be boring. Spring Break's a perfect time to shoot some hoops, practice guitar, or watch all those movies you never seem to have time to watch on weekends.

And if all this hasn't been enough and you still want to go to Cancun, let me know. I have connections.

The AP Question

"I'm taking APUSH next year."
"I'm sorry, are you suicidal?"
This exchange is an example of just a few of students' views on AP classes.

Should I sign up for AP Environmental Science? Is BC Calc AP really worth it? How many AP's should I take to impress colleges and yet maintain my basic human sanity?

Stanford says, "Always sign up from among the most challenging courses that excite you the most." On the other hand, "Do not feel pressured to take Honors or Advanced Placement courses just because they are Honors or Advanced Placement Courses."

The question of how much is too much is too often forgotten in the average overachiever's quest for college admissions. Five AP's per year is regarded as ridiculous; one is not challenging enough. The magic number must lie somewhere between.

Advanced Placement classes, according to CollegeBoard, help you "enter a universe of knowledge that might otherwise remain unexplored in high school" and AP exams give you "the opportunity to earn credit or advanced standing at most of the nation's colleges and universities." However, most of the students who take AP courses in high school do not plan to finish college early, as the original purpose dictates. Has an AP course become just another ruler by which colleges measure their prospective applicants? And above all, is the result worth the rigors?

Six Paly students shared their experiences.
A, a senior, took AP US History her junior year and AP's in all core subjects her senior year. She wrote a piece on the unreliability of college admissions for Verde (http://voice.paly.net/view_story.php?id=6146).

K, a senior, took one AP and one Honors class her junior year, and three AP's her senior year.

T, a senior, took one AP her junior year and three her senior year, but dropped one, leaving her with Spanish 5AP and AP Statistics in her schedule. "AP Stats is really different from the other math classes," she said, without saying it was harder or easier.

K, a junior, is taking no AP's this year, and expressed incredulity when I told her I planned on taking four my junior year.

E, a senior, took two AP's as a junior and four as a senior. A prospective Political Science major who recently interviewed for Brown, he manipulated his schedule to take multiple social studies classes his sophomore year "to make colleges see that I'm serious about the subject." In other areas, however, he did not plan quite as well. "Believe me, you do not want to take Living Skills your senior year," he said, referring to the traditionally sophomore-dominated class that includes First Aid training, among other "life skills."

M, a senior headed to Stanford for track, took two AP's her junior year and three her senior year. She also holds the school track record in the 400 and 800m.

Paly, a demanding school in itself, offers a wide array of honors and advanced placement classes, making it possible to sign up for an all-AP schedule of 7 classes in 12th grade, provided one has completed the prerequisites.

Favorite AP Environmental Science is looked upon as a less stressful AP, but requires a year of Physics. Senior A described the AP College English teacher as "crazy," but laughed as she said it. An endless combination of social studies electives begins with AP US History (dubbed "A-PUSH" by students) in junior year, and culminates, some would say, in AP Psychology, a class exclusively for seniors. And then there is the KING OF ALL AP CLASSES: BC Calculus AP. A Stanford engineering professor, whose child took the class, reportedly said it was excruciatingly and unnecessarily painful.

Of course, the moral of the story ought to be that it doesn't matter how many AP's you take if you do what you love. And to a certain degree, this is true; take senior M as proof. However, it is also true that colleges love to see you focusing on a challenging class in a subject about which you are passionate.

So, sign up for as many AP classes as you think you can handle, but take them with a pinch of realistic expectations, self-awareness, and - oh yeah - salt.

Palo Alto Theater Gets a Little Drama

The set: Palo Alto. The scene: Children's Theater. Picture this: some cash goes missing. Then a video camera. Next to go is some "hard to find" equipment. Who is behind it? No one can say.

What happens? An anonymous person calls the police, who storm in, evacuate the building, place the four employees on paid leave, and promise to investigate while providing insubstantial "reports" on their actions to the public. Subplot: three of these four employees are union workers. What do the police do? They forbid the union members to talk to the union president. Subsubplot: one of these union workers is currently in the hospital dying of stomach cancer.

With Hollywood writers on strike, I think we might just have a blockbuster here.

This drama, of course, revolves around the shutdown of the Palo Alto Children's Theater.

Who called the police? Unknown to public. Why did the person call the police if they suspected inside theft instead of disciplining the suspects (as would any company with suspicions of employee misbehavior)? Unknown to anyone. What are the police really doing? Unknown to public. And what would theater staff be doing with a bunch of video and audio equipment?

Planning their comeback by making a music video, probably.

The two main directors, both long LONG time employees of the Children's Theater, are city employees. This means the city finances the Children's Theater even though it only makes a fraction of what it spends. However, when it comes to accountability, who is the boss of these two veteran directors? This is the question.

The Friends of the Children's Theater provides additional financial support to buy "extras" that are out of the $1 million annual budget. They are not financially responsible for the theater nor do they have any control over the theater management. They don't even see spending records.

If you understand all this, explain it to me.

As will happen with a scandal, there are those who accuse the police and the city of destroying the reputations of four honorable citizens. To a certain degree, it's a valid point. If there is no definitive evidence, what are the police hoping to find? A document saying, "I took the video camera?" And if there is definitive evidence, why are the police keeping so quiet about it?

Of course, there are also those who believe it's about time for some new blood; directors who don't insist upon a Jordan outreach show being performed to a CD instead of live music. (i.e. younger people who aren't quite so controlling and resistant to change.)

All you need now to nicely round out the plot is the sister of the box office worker secretly being in love with the former husband of the theater director, who coincidentally overheard some illegal dealings between the costume designer and her fiance, who is actually planning to escape to Swaziland by the next boat to cover up his 14 jail terms before the day of the wedding is set.

But hey! That's drama.

Update: Well-known long-time director Michael Litfin died of cancer on Friday, February 1. A celebration of his life will be held at the Childrens' Theatre on February 17.

Lunch Crisis!

Let me tell you, lugging a 12-pound softball bag to school every day for a week is nobody's idea of fun. Especially when the load is accompanied by a 46 pound backpack, a small lunch bag, and exhausted shoulders from lobbing softballs for two hours after school.

So is it any wonder that I sought to consolidate by tucking my lunch in with my cleats and glove? Of course, you respond. It's perfectly sensible. However, when one forgets to take the lunch out of the bag when one leaves it in a certain PE teacher's office to be collected at 3pm, the plot thickens.

No matter, though. I begged a few friends to accompany me on the cross-campus trek to retrieve my wayward lunch. It was then that disaster struck. The door was locked! Now I was stuck on a Tuesday without a lunch right before a math quiz.

Having coerced a senior into buying me a decaf mocha during 4th per, I was not absolutely starving, but the fact remained: I needed food. And unfortunately, given the time, the only food available was - *gasp* - that's right. Cafeteria food.

I told myself it would be OK. I could get some overpriced, substandard, but filling Chinese food (orange chicken, I believe it was) and not collapse from exhaustion.

Then, it happened again. "Sorry, we're out of chicken."

I cringed, not believing I could sink this low. "Can I have...a...pepperoni...pizza?" I choked. Five second later, IT landed in front of me.

The cheese was mangled, displaying the thin layer of once frozen tomato sauce. The crust was puffy, belying the insubstantial air bubbles beneath the surface. When I turned IT over, the bottom crust had the consistency of an uncooked shortbread cookie full of partially hydrogenated soybean oil. (Fun, huh?)

I took a bite. It was greasy and disgusting, but I didn't collapse in math.

I guess we must all be thankful for the small things in life. Like not being poisoned by cafeteria food. Really puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

Freshman Finals!!!

"Wow. This is the first time you guys have ever taken real finals."

This ominous quote was uttered by a particularly observant senior to a class of freshmen on the first day of official first semester finals. Needless to say, it did not calm my nerves as I anticipated the horrors to come.

Luckily, my first "final" consisted of watching a movie. Thanks to the first-per. teacher who knows what's important in life! (If anyone wants to snag this class for next year, it's Video Production.) Unfortunately, this film turned out to be possibly the most depressing piece of footage I have ever viewed. SPOILER WARNING. PLOT DETAILS FOLLOW. In a nutshell: A pair of sarcastic just-graduated high school misfits, (Scarlett Johansson and Thora Birch) decide not to go to college. The dark-haired one falls in love with another misfit guy 12 years older than her after helping him get a girlfriend in the first place. Her best friend, both concerned and annoyed at the amount of time Enid spends with her new "friend," grows farther and farther away from Enid. Eventually, Enid loses a college scholarship and her boyfriend, and, her life ruined, is seen boarding a bus to - we never find out. Exactly the movie that leaves you pumped up and ready to spend two hours taking a science final.

After a leisurely half hour spent with friends frantically recounting study habits and speculating on just how much the teachers would delight in giving us all F's when we failed each and every test (as we were all positive we would), I crossed the quad with two friends to the first hurdle.

Freshman biology is a relatively easy class, but of course I overstressed and overstudied for a final comprised of all previous test questions. Unless one didn't study, has amnesia, or possesses a particular aversion to paramecium, the final was not difficult. Accurate stress factor: 4 out of 10.

As the Supreme Dictator of All Finals (that would be math) was scheduled for Thursday, Wednesday night was spent somewhat like this: worry. study old quizzes. fret. study old quizzes. freak out. calm down. study review sheet. study social studies to take my mind off it. firmly tell myself that I have to study if I want a good grade. study everything. Reason that I've been studying for a week, so I have nothing to worry about. Remind myself that overconfidence is the pitfall of all test-takers. (I just made that up, but it sounded genuine at the time.)

I don't even remember what the weather was like on Thursday. Because my English final was all vocab, I breezed through that final and set my sights on the goal. (2/10.) As soon as I walked into the math classroom, I could tell something was out of the ordinary. (Besides the fact that my entire college and after-college career was to be decided in that very room, I mean.) (By the way, that was a joke. I am not actually that overly anxious.) Rearranged desks always put a feeling of unease in the air, but the multiple choice went all right. All in all, I was only worried about one proof and one algebra problem when the test was over. (9/10.) Exhausted, I thanked the Supreme Being of Schedule Making that I had PE next and could unwind by watching another movie - this time it was one of the "stupid", not the "depressing" genre. Oh well. (0/10).

About French, what can I say? Only that a certain celebrity whose first name resembles that of the capital city of said country could probably get an A on it. This was due in part to the fact that the students wrote the final questions. The only remotely challenging section was that of culture. (a.k.a. In Mahgreb (Francophone North Africa), do they praise the Lord for their food before or after the meal?) I was thankful for this respite from "killer" finals and used the extra study time to study for social studies. (1.5/10.)

After having heard from multiple people that a lot of the questions centered on the Enlightement, I brushed up on my philosophers and had a good time trying to remember why Phillip II declared war on Queen Elizabeth I. (Maybe he thought he could beat her because he had a greater number after his name.) (6/10).

All in all, most of my finals were not hard. Some even bordered on - dare I say it? - easy. Math was about as hard as I'd expected, and the rest were easier than I expected.

Congratulations to all on surviving the week! And for those who are sad finals are over (you know who you are), there's always Spring finals!

New Year's Resolutions: A Study in Societal Impact

New years' resolutions, just like school rules (some would argue) are made to be broken. A firm "I will start studying for tests three days in advance", seeming a perfectly achievable goal during those relaxing days of Winter Break almost always dissolves after the first test, especially if the result was not ideal.

The categories of resolutions have been fairly standard this year. Present was the academic resolution (from a freshman: "I will stop procrastinating - doing homework in the morning is not a good idea.") The athletic goal made an appearance as well (from a freshman: "I want to make CCS."). And then there's the "aspirational resolution" - a resolution regarding an ability over which one doesn't actually have much control, which, technically, brands it a wish. (From a freshman: "To be able to see my true friends and never let them go.") Of course, if one fails to acquire this ability, there's always the safeguard that "it wasn't really a resolution." Milestones to be achieved through work are easy to make and easy to break. However, they also provide a high level of satisfaction. A sophomore from Mexico emphasized the opportunity to turn over a new leaf ("I'll try to erase my mistakes and start all over, be a better person and not fight with my sister.") A respectable but, again, difficult resolution to follow through on is "to be nice to people I don't like" (from a freshman).

But, taking a close look, what really is New Year's? The only reason January starts on this day and not on May 23 is because of Pope Gregory XIII, who decreed in a papal bull that this reformed version of Julius Caesar's calendar would be the norm. (Ironically, he decreed this on February 24, not at New Year's.) As put by a Jordan eighth-grader, "Every day is a new year, from that day one year ago." Why do we set so much store by this particular day? The answer is the same as the reason why celebrities are famous: we decide what events, things, and people are important. If we all decided not to buy movie and concert tickets, never watch TV shows, never Google celebrities, and generally ignore them, their status would disappear. A celebrity, by definition, must be famous. So if we decided to make the year start on July 4th, our year would start on July 4th, no questions asked (well, there would be some questions, but it would catch on eventually).

A new year, whatever its real societal significance, does give people hope for new ways, new promises, and renewed appreciation for life because people so designate it. Plus, it gives us all an excuse to sit around and drink Martinelli's.