Hugger Mugger

Granny Hat recently got caught up on the “Readolutions” 2023 Train. It came puffing and chugging into town right about the time the giant potato in Idaho dropped. Suddenly, it seems like book clubs and reading lists are the ticket!  Everywhere she looks, friends and family members are boarding the Book Train hoping to read their way to more better smartness and maybe a clearer understanding of what to do and how to be in such a crazy world. Granny does not want to be left at the station.  Toot! Toot!

Granny Hat has always loved classical fiction and mystery, with a dabble in fantasy and science fiction as long as it is Tolkien or C.S. Lewis.  She will rarely pick up a non-fiction treatise on science, philosophy or theology.  Even biographies aren’t her favorites; they often fall into the category Gordon Lightfoot sings about “and you won’t read that book again, because the ending’s just too hard to take”.  Granny loves a happy ending or, at least, one with some redemption.  Real life doesn’t always wrap up like a fairy tale or with an obvious, satisfying truth. 

They say it is a brave new world though. Granny Hat realizes if she is to be equipped to give an answer or perhaps counter a dangerous fallacy, she may need to switch the rails and explore some other genres.  (Although, she still maintains that if you want to make sense of modern society and get prepared to make a difference, read To Kill a Mockingbird, Tale of Two Cities, Count of Monte Cristo, Lord of the Rings, even Jane Eyre!)  There is nothing new under the sun; the old classics’ lessons still stand.  

Granny started her journey this year with some titles that have been collecting dust on her bookshelf for years or read so long ago that she can’t remember much of what they had to say.  The first pile includes the Francis Schaeffer Trilogy, The War on Cops by Heather Mac Donald, Collected Lyrics by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. Granny’s Bible sits on the bottom of the tower because it is the foundational book she clings to; all others to be studied through its filter.  She is currently reading through Isaiah.  Was it written last month?  Still as timely and true as ever!  

This post is not a book review, but something jumped off the page that Granny wants………no, needs to share.  

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is not a feel good, feet – up – on – the – lounge chair sort of book.  It is a nail-bitin’, doom and gloom sort of book.  It definitely belongs on Lightfoot’s list with one tragic early church biography after another. But if Granny Hat wanted a kick in the pants to stop complaining, adopt a plan and start shining her little light, then Foxe for the win! Plus, she learned a new term: 

“the streets were always full of people who were desirous to see and gratify him; especially at Nuremberg, where there were many curates who came unto him, desiring him that that they might talk with him secretly, unto whom he answered: that he loved much rather to show forth his mind openly before all men than in Hugger-Mugger, for he would keep nothing close or hidden.”  biography of John Huss, martyred for the faith July 6, 1415. 

Hugger – Mugger?   Granny had never heard that term before. She learned it can mean “untidy”, sort of like harum-scarum or it can mean to “conceal or smuggle”. John Huss had one up on all of us when it came to courage.  Granny Hat thinks she prefers to hugger-mugger or to be IN a hugger mugger; it is uncertain whether it is best used as a noun or a verb.  Whatever would keep her safe and warm and out of trouble, that’s what Granny wants.  She can just sip tea and pray for change in her hugger-mugger but what if God calls her to “be strong and courageous, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” and then asks her to march around some walls and blow trumpets? 

Anyway, Granny Hat is doing some soul searching while the rails keep clicking along. Some of you are way ahead on the tracks, do share what you are reading in 2023 or what you would recommend from your journey. And it’s not too late to join us on the Readolutions 2023 Train!  Get your Ticket to Read! All Aboard! 

Upcoming!  Granny’s eldest son has his Pacific Crest Trail Permit for this coming summer season.  Stay posted!  He has collaborated with younger brother Mission, studied the maps and is busy smoking/drying his own jerky and vacuum sealing meals for the trip.  Once again, Granny Hat and her friends can enjoy an armchair view of a wild and woolly adventure.  She asks herself why she didn’t raise all her kids to just stay put in their hugger-mugger, bloom where they are planted and be safe. 

Spring is on the way! Somewhere!