The Power Of Half

The Power Of Half

YA/adult nonfiction
"Our family is a fairly typical Atlanta foursome: two baby
boomers (Joan and Kevin) and two teenagers (Hannah and Joseph). Our
days consist of the standard American life--school, work, and youth
sports. For more than a decade we aspired to the usual "stuff": new
cars, a spacious home, nice vacations. Sure, we took on the
occasional volunteer activity, feeding the homeless and building
Habitat For Humanity houses, but largely we were consumed by our own
careers and enhancing our lifestyle through bigger, newer, better. We
were focussed on us."
Reading the first paragraph of Kevin and Hannah Salwen's The
Power of Half, you know two things. Their family is doing peachy keen
by contemporary American standards. Things are about to change
drastically.
One night Joan was driving Hannah, then 14, home from a
sleepover. When they paused at a stoplight Hannah juxtaposed two
images: those of a homeless guy and a man driving a Mercedes coupe.
Perhaps if the Mercedes man had a less posh car the homeless man could
have a meal. But it wasn't just a too bad, so sad moment. The
sadness and anger stuck with her.
A few days after the incident Hannah announced that she wanted
her family to become a family that actually did things instead of
talking about doing things. Joan decided to test her commitment.
Would she be so eager if an action involved giving up her own
possessions? She suggested they sell their humungous house, move into
one half the size, and give the left over money to charity.
Hannah signed on immediately.
That's what they ended up doing.
There were snags. The house took longer to sell than they'd
anticipated, so for quite awhile the family was paying upkeep on two
houses. Picking a charity and a way to get involved took them way out
of their comfort zone. But they persisted and, in addition to making
a difference in the world, became stronger and more unified as a family.
My favorite part of the book is Hannah's additions to each
chapter. Addressed to peers, they give really good suggestions for
getting self and family involved in volunteering and activism...
...even if you have far fewer material resources than the
Salwens. Eugene and I raised our kids in a trailer park. But I
immersed our kids in volunteering and activism from the beginning. I
have very fond memories of taking the kids on the overnight buses from
Maine to DC to war protests with a bag of snack food to sustain us.
One year for Mothers Day they and their friends organized a protest
with signs against the war along Route Two in front of where we
lived. They have grown up to be involved, empathic, and very good
people.
On a purrrrsonal (Joey cat is beside me singing his love song) note, I
had an AWESOME weekend. Amber held her birthday party Saturday. All
3 kids and their significant others were there. The theme was
Goosebumps, a family favorite series. I spent so many precious hours
reading the books over and over to the girls. When we did the choose
your own ending ones Amber always had me choose. The decor was
perfect, starting with the elaborate graveyard in the front yard.
Amber had written her own Goosebumps choose your own ending book: #1
THE CURSE OF THE BEWITCHED BIRTHDAY PARTY. She read it to us and had
us choose at all the decision points. Brian did some dramatic acting
as a wizard. We also had other games and picture taking against a
very dramatic backdrop. The party food was all delish. (I suspect
Amber may share some of her party awesomeness techniques in the near
future. Http://amberscraftaweek.blogspot.com)
After the party Katie and Jacob stopped by for a nice visit on their
way back to Portland. Joey cat was SO HAPPY to see Katie again and to
meet Jacob.
Then today we had flower communion at church. The Sunday school
joined the choir. I got to be one of the lilac dancers. People took
lovely spring flowers home. Who could ask for more?
A great big shout out goes out to Amber and Brian (the hosts with
most), my dear growing family, and my church family with whom I
celebrated. Special congratulations to Pastor Steve (Orono United
Methodist) for achieving his PhD and his talented wife, Judy, without
whom attaining the degree would have been a lot more challenging.
jules hathaway


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