Nightmares

You know what tends to give a gal nightmares every single night?  Reading a terrifying, yet utterly compelling book about the horrors of slavery.  I've been reading Roots by Alex Haley lately.  I've always wanted to read it because I remember when the mini-series was on TV and anyone who was anyone was watching it (I didn't watch it.  I was SEVEN.)  It was a TV EVENT that hardly anyone missed and people still talk about it today. And also, I am a little bit in love with LeVar Burton, that Reading Rainbow Sexpot.



So anyway, I've been reading the book and have nightmares every night about babies getting taken away and the parents not able to do anything about it, which makes sense because that kind of stuff happens in the book, but I'm also having dreams where family members get diagnosed with cancer, and people play baseball with onions, and my dog grows little hands and puts a rat in the rowboat I am riding in.  I am going to be happy when the book is over so maybe the dreams will go away.  I knew slavery sucked, but I guess I didn't realize the intense depths to which it sucked.  Suffice it to say that Southern whites of the late 18th century were not very nice people.  Every day of Kunta Kinte's life of slavery is a nightmare, even though as a slave he's treated better than most.  It's hard to stand it, but what does one do about it now?  One of the main themes of the book is self-identity and knowing who you are, and what you stand for and where you come from.  I'd love to read it with a class someday but there are about five pages of sex parts that would make it inappropriate for school.  Also it's almost 900 pages.  Not really manageable for the average high school student.  And I don't have a job. That puts a damper on all current lesson plans.