Savvy Women

This week I want to blog about a really talented Dutch documentary filmmaker named Bregtje van der Haak and one of her more recent creations, a movie entitled California Dreaming. The film begins with a very simple premise, as an examination of the current economic crisis and its aftermath in Los Angeles, California, but it quickly becomes about much more as van der Haak deftly examines a number of universal themes, such as work, family, responsibility, community, injustice, resilience, and empowerment. I strongly advise everyone reading this blog to watch the entire film. If you do and you’re like me, you’ll find it very moving.

For me, the key moment of the movie comes right at the end when van der Haak asks Laura Burkhalter, a visionary architect who dreams of founding a commune and transforming the urban experience in the process, if the American dream is kaput. She quite simply answers “no” and then reinterprets the concept, stressing that it has always been more about “self-expression” and “freedom” than about the acquisition of material goods. She then goes on to describe the “American character” in a way that provides a feel-good conclusion to the documentary.

I don’t want to spoil the film by writing too much about it. Just take a look and you’ll find yourself among optimistic, likeable people who tell very interesting stories about what it’s like to dream big while living in “the Golden State.”

Now that my classes at the university have ended for the year, I’m looking forward to summer vacation. In a little more than two weeks I’ll be flying to America to see my family, and on the way there, I’ll do a stopover stay for a few days in Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ll blog that trip in the weeks ahead, so stay tuned.

Reading is one of the things I enjoy doing during the summertime when I’m back home. Just recently, when looking for reading material to carry me through the next three months, I discovered Jean Kwok, a Chinese-American writer who emigrated from Hong Kong when she was very young and now lives in the Netherlands with her Dutch husband and two children. Kwok’s first book, Girl in Translation, a novel that is based quite extensively upon early experiences she had in the Big Apple melting pot, was recently published and seems to be getting pretty good reviews.

Kwok can be seen talking specifically about her novel here. I’ve included a CNN interview in which she focuses less on the book and more on her upbringing and the interesting concept of “identity.”

I feel that I have a lot in common with Kwok. Of course, we both write, but I’m thinking mostly about the fact that the two of us have spent significant chunks of time living outside the countries where we were born. Such people, with a foot in two different worlds, are very interesting, I think.

Each year, as I get ready to jet back to Texas, I always spend some time thinking about who I am, where I’ve come from, and how I’ve changed now that I’ve become so international. The conclusion that I always come to, at the end of all that thinking, is that I’m now the intriguing Mr. Gray Kwok refers to in her interview.

Dear SWM Blog Readers,

My return flight to Cairo is scheduled for the wee hours of Tuesday, the twenty-fifth of August, which means that I’m in the last day or so of this year’s summertime visit with family and friends in Texas.

This particular trip back home was very eventful, and thus hectic, especially toward the end, mostly because there was a last-minute family emergency that has been of great concern.  Etta Merle Hausenfluck, my maternal grandmother, a woman I’ve always called “Memaw” (doesn’t that sound southern?) and someone I’ve mentioned in these blogs, has had a couple of mild strokes.  As a result, I’ve been staying with her, at her country home, and mostly off the Internet.  I suppose this is a very convoluted way of saying that I’ve been unable to put together a new blog for this week.  For that, I apologize.

Soon, though, I’ll be back at “home” in Cairo and the blogging will come easier since I’ll no longer be living on the highway or out of a suitcase as I have been doing these past several weeks.

Before I wrap this up, I would like to mention a book I’m currently reading.  It’s called Carnal Acts, a collection of personal essays by Nancy Mairs, a writer of great courage who candidly discusses, especially in the piece “Carnal Acts,” what it’s like to be a middle-aged American woman stricken with multiple sclerosis, an illness Nancy Mairs has been living with for nearly two decades.

When I bought this book, about a week or so ago now, I had no idea how apropos it would be given my grandmother’s current situation.  The book deals with the subject of illness and limitation, but not in a maudlin way.  It’s the sort of book my grandmother should read, but that wouldn’t be her way.  For as long as I can remember now, my grandmother has been more a woman of action than reflection, so reading is mostly not her cup of tea.

I’ll miss you Memaw.  I’ll miss everyone…

Troy