Treasures

By the end of my mother's nomadic and often estranged life she owned only what she could fit into her car.
Among those items were a handful of books, some of which I recall from childhood.

Knowing what little I do about my mother's missing years, it's remarkable that she was able to
keep anything at all. All I have are a few books , her journals and some photos, but to me they are treasures.

This (below) was published in 1965 and is a cautionary tale about the consequences of war for war's sake. For the Twin and I, this was a bedtime story. As I grew and began to understand the forces at work in the then-raging Viet Nam war, I looked back at this tiny tome and saw war as the tragic, fatal foolishness that it is. Today, it's just as relevant as ever, perhaps more so.




This book (below), again illustrated by the amazing Edward Gorey, explores how we learn and why we don't. We don't learn because we don't want to.
I didn't know what it was about when I was a child but I wanted to.





This (below) is more recent. It's a 1993 publication and I didn't read it until after my mother's death. Again, it's even more relevant now than it was then.

WE ARE ALL IN THE DUMPS
FOR DIAMONDS ARE TRUMPS
THE KITTENS ARE GONE TO ST. PAUL'S
THE BABY IS BIT
THE MOON'S IN A FIT
AND THE HOUSES ARE BUILT WITHOUT WALLS

It is very difficult for me to look through my mother's things. There are many treasures in there but there are some traps too.
That is why I didn't go to work today and I posted these scans instead.
I couldn't and I had too, respectively.