Tag Archives: Commentary

01.11.17
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Writing Prompt #40: “52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge” (Week 2)

Week #2: Spouse / Significant Other

I could go on for days about how grateful I am for my husband, Al. He is an amazing husband to me, loyal son to his parents, loving son-in-law to my parents, awesome brother to Nick, and a great friend to many people. Many have described him as a big teddy bear.

I’m grateful that he has helped introduce / expanded upon other worlds to me – Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Star Trek, comedy, and science fiction. I’m nowhere nearly as knowledgeable as he is in some of these worlds (especially Star Wars), but I love that we accept and recognize each other’s loves / passions / desires. I enthusiastically support his hobbies (photography, movies, video games, watching documentaries about aliens), and he graciously supports mine (writing, reading, American Girl collecting, watching game shows, and traveling).

He has always been supportive in whatever I set my mind to. When he doesn’t think something is a good idea (very rare), he offers his opinion in a gracious, careful way. He offers constructive criticism.

He’s a hard worker, and I’m grateful that he has a good job in his chosen field. He’s ambitious, researching ways to improve his craft and his skills. I’m incredibly thankful that he makes enough money for us to have the beautiful house that we have been working on together.

I sincerely appreciate the relationship that we have built over the last six years. We’ve greatly enjoyed our first year of marriage. We have our disagreements and occasional communication issues, but we are strong and happy. Here’s to many more years!

One of the many photos of our amazing wedding day! This was taken by Amanda MacDiarmid, owner/operator of Stellar Exposures, November 2015.
This was just one of our fabulous engagement photos at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront! This was taken by Amanda MacDiarmid, owner/operator of Stellar Exposures, July 2015.
This was taken at Al’s company Christmas party at the Virginia Beach Convention Center, December 2014.
We decided to visit the Norfolk Zoo for the first time in years, and had a great time! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, August 2014.
I entered a contest on Busch Gardens’ Facebook page, and ended up winning VIP passes to their KC and the Sunshine Band concert! This was a fantastic day in August 2013.
This was a candid shot taken at the Alpha Sigma Tau Anchor Banquet, November 2010, just a couple months after we started dating. Photo Credit: Tina Bird Stewart.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

01.10.17
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Book Review #27: “The War That Saved My Life”

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Image Credit: books.google.com

“It had been awful, but I hadn’t quit. I had persisted. In battle I had won.”

~Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, The War that Saved My Life

This was another book I picked up at Barnes & Noble recently. I could tell it was historical fiction, and I’ve been itching for more historical fiction to cross my path.

I wasn’t disappointed. This book immersed me into the world of London and the English / British countryside at the beginning of World War II. Seen through the eyes of Ada and her younger brother Jamie, I started to understand how difficult life would have been back then.

This book is technically written for middle-grade readers, but I really enjoyed this one. It was hard to put down at night to go to sleep. The chapters are shorter, but each one had this grip on me that didn’t want to let go. I wanted to see what happened next to Ada, Jamie, their Mam, and the other characters they encounter along the way.

I can’t say too much about this book without spoiling things, but Bradley captured the time period nearly flawlessly. And, to write from a child’s perspective is remarkable in itself. I think she did a great job.

I was very excited to read on the back cover of a sequel to the story. It’s being released in early October, and I can’t wait. I look forward to writing the review of The War I Finally Won later this year.

I also want to read more of Bradley’s books – There was a preview of Jefferson’s Sons: A Founding Father’s Secret Children in the back of this book, and that one is going on my soon-to-be updated TBR.

This is a great book for almost any age.It has a good grasp of history, drama, family, relationships, and compassion. I highly recommend it!

5 out of 5 stars.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

01.07.17
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Book Review #26: “Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America”

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Image Credit: amazon.com

“This is a book about a very simple idea: where the criminal justice system fails to respond vigorously to violent injury and death, homicide becomes endemic. African Americans have suffered from just such a lack of effective criminal justice, and this, more than anything, is the reason for the nation’s long-standing plague of black homicides.”

~Jill Leovy, Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America

I picked up this book less than a month ago, when I was in Barnes & Noble, deciding what to get (rather, how many books I could get) with the generous gift card that Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas.

I think this was on the “Recommended Reading” shelf – Plus, the 20 percent off sticker didn’t hurt, either.

I’ve been interested in true crime stories for a long time. It’s fascinating to see stories unfold on TV – Castle, Cold Case, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Criminal Minds, NCIS, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and so on. But, most of the time, the stories we see on shows like these are fictionalized. Some are based on true stories, but most are created by writers.

This book initially caught my attention because of the title. I was asking myself, “Okay, what is ‘Ghettoside?’ That sounds interesting.”

The story Leovy, a reporter for The Los Angeles Times, writes is full of twists and turns. She follows John Skaggs, a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) homicide detective, as he works to solve the murder of Bryant Tenelle. Bryant was 18-years-old when he was shot in 2007. Bryant was also Wally Tennelle’s son – A LAPD detective assigned to Robbery Homicide Division (RHD).

She goes deep into some of Los Angeles’s worst areas – Watts, south of the Ten, and so on. But, she tries to dispel some stereotypes and myths along the way. She identifies several of the worst gangs in the area, and tries to figure why black men kept killing black men. It’s evident that she’s a talented researcher, as well as a writer.

I could tell, almost immediately, that this book took a long time to write. Leovy spent years on this book. Simultaneously, she was attempting to capture and track every homicide in Los Angeles County, in real time.

Ghettoside was riveting. It has a few weak points – There were a lot of characters introduced early on, and it was difficult to keep up at first. I found that I had to stop myself early several nights, because I didn’t want my brain to be overloaded, even though my brain wanted me to keep going. The timeline flipped and flopped a few times.

I felt every emotion while reading this book. Some scenes almost made me sick; Leovy is incredibly detailed. This book is not for the faint of heart. She writes graphically at times, but only to hammer home the point at hand. She wants to emphasize how awful these homicides are. She does a tremendous job of capturing emotions from the characters involved – The LAPD, the grieving families, witnesses who are terrified to testify, and even the prosecutors.

In addition, she shines a spotlight on divisions within the police department that are frustrating to many. It’s evident there’s still work to be done.

Fortunately, progress has been made. Homicide rates in the area have fallen dramatically. Leovy appears pleased and proud of the work that’s been done. She strikes a good balance of narrative and statistics – A balance that kept me reading several chapters a night.

It would be interesting to have a follow-up book several years from now, to see what’s changed.

4 out of 5 stars.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

01.04.17
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Writing Prompt #39: “52 Weeks of Gratitude Challenge” (Week 1)

Week #1: Why Start This Challenge?

That is an excellent question.

As I was thinking about this challenge over the last few days, preparing to write this first post, I prayed. I’m a Christian, raised Methodist. I find that I’m filled with peace and calm whenever I pray, and I feel better when I finish.

In praying about this post and this challenge, I felt that this challenge will stretch me during this year. Up until a few minutes ago, I wasn’t sure what to write, or how to approach this.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m excited to be stretched, and literally challenged this year. I’m looking forward to doing something different.

I’ve done a few challenges recently, but I’ve noticed that all of them have been about media or other types of consumption. With this one, I’ll be looking into my heart and write about things that mean the world to me.

I’m thrilled to share this journey with all of you! I’m grateful that I have the ability to write these posts on my laptop, have the Internet to share them on WordPress and Facebook, and have so many amazing readers and supporters in my life.

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. It’s the first week of the New Year – I’m trying to make the most of it. Here’s to 2017!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

01.02.17
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Commentary #47: “Young Man On A Mission To Honor World War II Veterans Before It’s Too Late”

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Image Credit: QuoteHD.com

I want to introduce you to one of my favorite news segments. It’s called “On The Road with Steve Hartman,” and it airs every Friday night on the CBS Evening News.

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Image Credit: CBS News

When I was younger, my parents would record it and we would gather to watch it together. It was a great family bonding activity. Steve’s stories are something we continue to share with each other, our families, and our friends.

Now, since I’ve gotten married and have a house of my own, I don’t often get to watch it every week. Luckily, CBS News has a whole page dedicated to Steve’s stories – On The Road. You can read the written articles / transcripts, or you can watch the videos.

I almost always watch the videos.

Yesterday, I realized that I hadn’t seen several of the most recent segments. I spent nearly 45 minutes going through the page. Each story is roughly three minutes in length, and I guarantee you just watching or reading one will make your day a little bit brighter.

Yesterday, with each story, I smiled, I thought reflectively, and tears came to my eyes several times.

And then, I came upon this story:

Seconds after finishing the video, only two minutes and fifty-five seconds long, I knew I wanted to – No, I needed to – write a blog post about it.

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Image Credit: Heroes of the Second World War

Rishi, at right in the photo above, is only 19-years-old, but he’s already made a huge impact. He started this project in 2014, and just the short time since then, he’s worked so hard and changed so many lives.

The full website is coming soon, but here’s what Rishi has so far:

This story reminded me of NPR’s StoryCorps, but Rishi is just one young man. And what he’s doing, having skipped days of high school to interview these incredible men, plus delaying college to continue this work, is so significant and important.

According to various sources, there were 16,112,566 members of the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. Of those 16.1 million service members, there were 291,557 battle deaths, 113,842 other deaths in service (non-theater), and 670,846 non-mortal wounded.

As of this writing, it’s estimated that about 620,000 World War II veterans are still alive. Sadly, we lose roughly 375 veterans every day.

If that number remains accurate, we have about 1,653 days left until no survivors remain. Divide that by 365 days in a year – It means, that most, if not all of these brave people, will be gone in 4.5 years. By 2021, this generation will very likely, literally, be history.

That gives me chills. Rishi couldn’t have started this mission at a better time. I’m inspired by him.

For him to also take the time every single day to call these veterans – Calling them to say “thank you” – makes me want to pick up the phone, too. I mean, can’t we all make the effort to pick up the phone and call someone? Make that connection? It doesn’t have to be a veteran – It can be your grandparents. Someone else in your family. A friend who lives far away.

I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

12.27.16
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Book Review #25: “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Just Us Girls: 101 Stories about Friendship for Women of All Ages”

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Image Credit: amazon.com

“Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words.”

~George Eliot

My beautiful friend, Diana, gave me this wonderful book one Sunday at church. I couldn’t wait to start reading it!

I’ve been collecting the Chicken Soup books ever since I was in elementary school. I think I have at least 20 of them at my parents’ house!

Just Us Girls was published in 2013, and I was excited to read some new stories. I love how these books are anthologies, and feature both new writers and past ones. I even read the writer biographies at the end!

I found that I was reading through the stories so quickly, that I had to force myself to stop reading almost every night so I could get adequate sleep.

A majority of these stories featured moms struggling to find friends when they were staying at home with their child or children. I can’t identify with that right now (Not yet, but hopefully I will be able to do that), but reading their stories made me smile, and gave me hope. All the stories contain a good dose of inspiration, and definitely laughter. It was very hard to suppress my laughter some nights while Al was asleep next to me.

Receiving this book made me want to go to my parents’ house and pick up the rest of my Chicken Soup books. I can’t wait to put all of them on my big bookcase in my office, some day soon.

I sincerely think they’re aptly named – They’re delicious, heartwarming, and each volume leaves you feeling full again.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

12.22.16
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Commentary #46: How The U.S. and Others Work with Mental Health Issues (Follow-Up to “A 700-Year-Old Haven for Mental Health”)

quote-on-mental-health-91-healthyplace

Image Credit: HealthyPlace.com

Back in October (Wow! Where did the time go?) I wrote a post about the amazing town of Geel, Belgium, and their remarkable approach to mental health and helping those in desperate need of care.

In case you missed it, here’s the link to the original post:

In my original post, I mentioned how I wanted to research how the U.S., other countries, and even other continents approach mental health issues, and how they are addressing them.

Are they like Geel? Or completely different?

It’s taken a long time to compile this research, so bear with me. My eyes have certainly been opened!

Through my research, it’s become clear to me that the United States in particular has a long, long way to go before reaching a place like Geel. Stigma is everywhere. However, I found some encouraging articles and resources.

The Washington Post published an article entitled Three innovative ways to address mental health issues in June 2014. This article focused primarily on children’s mental health, but this is as equally important, if not more so, to devote time and resources as adult mental health.

Published through Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama, the web page titled Community Recovery in the United States was intriguing. There are established programs modeled after Geel in the U.S., but only in certain states. This makes me wonder if there could be community recovery programs eventually established in every state, so that anyone can have access? Granted, this page has not been updated since 2009, but still, I like that these resources have been highlighted.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Temple University has created a unique Rehabilitation Research and Training Center that focuses on helping those with psychiatric difficulties be independent in their communities: Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities.

Around the world, there are several organizations that have mental health initiatives. However, there is still much work to be done to help those with mental disorders.

In an article from Wake Forest University in North Carolina from November 2009, Addressing mental-health issues around the world discussed the Mental Health Facilitators (MHF) program that started through a request from the World Health Organization (WHO).

From the Huffington Post in April 2016, Addressing Global Mental Health Challenges and Finding Solutions was a blog post about the author’s work with the International Medical Corps and other non-government organizations (NGOs) to help address these crises all over the world. In 2016, it’s incredibly sad that nine out of 10 that have mental disorders do not receive basic treatment.

Published on August 1, 2016 by the BJPsych Bulletin (Royal College of Psychiatrists, a charity registered in England, Wales, and Scotland), this fascinating article entitled Lessons to be learned from the oldest community psychiatric service in the world: Geel in Belgium was an exploration of the family foster care model that’s worked for so long.

On December 14th, I discovered some encouraging news from my own state of Virginia:

This was published by Richmond news station WRIC.

I read and re-read this article, at least three times. This proposal is full of promise, but it’s just a proposal. Thirty-one million dollars is good chunk of change, but I’m a bit skeptical. I hope it will come to fruition, but it’s going to take time.

I plan to keep following this particular story very closely.

In addition, here are other resources that you may be interested in:

Final Thoughts

It was frustrating and a bit disheartening to write this post, hence why it took so long to finally publish. As someone who has Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), it’s hard to read statistics and stories that show so limited resources, historically, being dedicated to mental health.

However, I’m happy that more attention is being given, and that more organizations are working every single day to make changes. I’m glad there are resources available to many, but it would be nice to see equal resources be available to all. That herculean effort takes time, money, and dedication.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

12.21.16
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Book Reviews #22, #23, and #24: “The Hunger Games” Trilogy

hunger-games

Image Credit: Scholastic Media Room

“One of the reasons it’s important for me to write about war is I really think that the concept of war, the specifics of war, the nature of war, the ethical ambiguities of war, are introduced too late to children. I think they can hear them, understand them, know about them, at a much younger age without being scared to death by the stories.”

~Suzanne Collins

This is the fourth book from my 2016 Reading Challenge!

I honestly can’t remember the first time I read The Hunger Games, but as soon as I did, I was hooked. I was elated that there was a trilogy, and I couldn’t wait to read all three.

My copy of The Hunger Games is in paperback, but I decided to buy Catching Fire and Mockingjay as hardbacks. I think hardbacks hold up better, in the long run.

I re-read these books for the challenge as voraciously as I had when I first bought them. I think I’ve read the entire trilogy three times now. Katniss’s story just grabs you by the collar and pulls you in within the first few pages.

While preparing this review, I realized that I made a comparison to this trilogy in my book review on the “Divergent” trilogy, published nearly two years ago:

It’s interesting to see how young adult (YA) literature has had its trends over the years. Even more fascinating is how similar The Hunger Games and Divergent are, in terms of structure.

Like the Divergent trilogy, I planned to break down this review into the three books. Here we go!

The Hunger Games

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Image Credit: en.wikipedia.org

Like I said earlier, Katniss and her story instantly grabbed me by the collar and pulled me into the world of Panem and its districts. It made me think of war zones, and some of American history. How divided some of our countries are, and how divided our own United States appear to be, too.

Reading her story made me think of courage, honor, family, love, and bravery. I was absolutely appalled at The Hunger Games and how long they had gone on, and how brutal people could be, but at the end, I was left wanting more.

5 out of 5 stars.

Catching Fire

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Image Credit: en.wikipedia.org

Picking up at what feels like the moment that The Hunger Games ended, Catching Fire held on to me and never let me go. It was an adrenaline rush the whole time.

This is the one that I powered through the fastest because the story would not let my mind stop to put it down.I detected political waves during the first book, and it became abundantly clear here. We follow Katniss through more tribulations and tragedies than triumphs, but I’ll take it. Like the first book, I couldn’t wait to start the third after finishing this one. Collins has that power that leaves you desperate to find out what happens next.

5 out of 5 stars.

Mockingjay

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Image Credit: en.wikipedia.org

I’ll admit, the first time I read this book, I absolutely hated it. It was really hard to force myself to get to the end.

The second time through – It was a little easier. I started to understand how important this book was to the overall story. It still wasn’t my favorite book,  and it took longer to read than the other two, but I started to appreciate it more.

This most recent time – I couldn’t put it down. I think part of it is because I started Mockingjay immediately after finishing Catching Fire. I didn’t realize how much of a difference that made until now. The way Collins writes, by the end of Catching Fire, I just couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen to Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and President Snow, among others. There is quite a myriad of characters to keep up with by the time you reach this book, but I think  Collins does a great job of keeping the characters straight. I also appreciated that the narrator was consistent throughout the trilogy, and I didn’t have to deal with multiple narrators.

At the very end, I felt sad. Not because of the book’s ending, but that my journey with the books was actually over. It’s a captivating story, one that Collins created beautifully, with great attention to detail. I felt immersed in the world the entire time. It was hard to get back to reality.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

One more note: I don’t normally do this, but I think this next part is worth mentioning.

I had read all three books once when the movies began to be released. When we first saw The Hunger Games in 2012, I was blown away at how well they had adapted the books to the silver screen. It’s certainly not an easy task to do so, since other book-to-movie adaptations have been criticized. But, I think this trilogy was nearly perfect for movie adaptations, and I think the filmmakers did a great job in doing so. I wasn’t happy that they divided Mockingjay into two parts, and made us wait a WHOLE FREAKING YEAR for Part 2. However, I think it was worth it.

I usually sit and watch them when they come on TV. Plus, these movies made me fall in love with Jennifer Lawrence. I told Al recently that I can totally see why they picked her – She’s a nearly flawless choice.

I highly recommend both!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

12.16.16
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Book Review #21: “The Sky’s The Limit: My Journey with Maryellen”

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Image Credit: amazon.com

“By choosing our path, we choose our destination.”

~Thomas S. Monson

If you haven’t already, I recommend checking out my previous Maryellen book reviews before reading this one:

In 2014, when American Girl first announced the relaunch of their historical characters into the BeForever line, I was skeptical of their revamping of the books. For nearly 20 years, I was used to each historical character having six books that make up their story, set over roughly the course of a year in their life.

Now, they’ve condensed the shorter six books into three longer books.It still covers roughly a year in their life, and the number of pages are pretty close between the two.

The main difference is the third book in each collection is a choose-your-own-adventure style, where girls of today dive right into the historical girl’s world.

Although immensely skeptical, I was also immediately intrigued. I wanted to read them!

—

Maryellen’s stories are the first complete collection in the new format that I have completed. I’m planning to do the same with Melody soon – See Book Review #13 and Book Review #14 for more!

Going in, I knew the story started with a girl of today being transported into Maryellen’s world because of the sneak peeks in the previous books.

To my surprise, I found that you can read this book without necessarily having to have read the others, which is neat. But, I appreciated having read the three others first. Actually, I recommend it.

—

Our modern girl is a skier from the mountains of North Carolina. Suddenly, with the watch she wins from her race, she finds herself in sunny Daytona Beach. Bewildered, she meets Maryellen and her siblings. The adventure commences quickly, and soon the modern girl, and the reader, are swept up in the 1950s and carried away.

I enjoyed being able to choose my path along the way – It made me excited to see what could happen next. I appreciated the blending of both worlds as well.

The only criticism I had was there was a very small section toward the beginning of the book (just a few pages) that required you to skip several pages ahead and then go back to that part later, if you happened to choose that path. I recognized the intent of the author, but it was annoying and a bit confusing. I can see how it could be frustrating to younger readers.

However, despite that slight annoyance, it was a fantastic book. I quickly devoured the different stories and journeys in the span of one night! It’s a breezy read, and I enjoyed the style. I applaud the author, and American Girl, for this ambitious idea for their dolls. Plus, it’s a new spin on other books like this.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂

10.29.16
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Commentary #45: A 700-Year-Old Haven for Mental Health

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An aerial view of Geel, Belgium. Image Credit: Tripwolf

“She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it looks like a pair of wings.”

~Unknown

Thanks to Facebook Memories earlier this week, I was reminded of an exceptional town in Belgium that has adopted a completely different approach on helping those that need help with their mental health.

Here’s the link to the original story:

I shared this story on Facebook in October 2015. I remember reading with great interest at the time, but then I filed it away in my brain.

Then, at the beginning of July, Geel re-entered my life.

Remember my recent post on podcasts?

One of the seasonal ones is NPR’s Invisibilia. I kept hearing about it in promos during other NPR podcasts. I subscribed in the spring of 2016, eager to listen to season 1 and prep for season 2.

Then, on July 1st, they released the episode titled, “The Problem with the Solution.”

The episode focused on Geel, and how the hosts went to Belgium to see this idea for themselves.

I remember being rapt with attention in my car during my work commute, hanging on every word.

I couldn’t get it out my head.

Seeing the article from Upworthy made me curious about how the U.S. helps those with mental health issues. Other countries and continents, too – Not just Europe. I’m thinking about Africa, Asia, and Australia. What about China, or Japan?

Over the next few weeks, I plan to research this and do a follow-up post with my findings.

Final Thoughts:

I find Geel’s approach fascinating. It’s interesting that the boarding population has decreased to due a reduction in the number of host families, but I think that’s part of the cycle. The inference that there’s a decreased need for farmhands makes sense.

It’s hard to believe that this one town has done this giving for 700 years, but i think it’s awesome. I’m excited to do more research, to see how the U.S., Canada, and other countries work with mental health issues.

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂