Saving Fish from Drowning

Amy Tan’s 2005 book Saving Fish from Drowning has many thought-provoking paradoxes. The book title itself is taken from the paradoxical anonymous quote intimating that by fishing fishes’ lives are actually being saved:

“A pious man explained to his followers: ‘It is evil to take lives and noble to save them. Each day I pledge to save a hundred fishes. I place the fishes on the bank, where they flop and twirl. “Don’t be scared,” I tell those fishes. “I am saving you from drowning.” Soon enough, the fishes grow calm and lie still. Yet, sad to say, I am always too late. The fishes expire. And because it is evil to waste anything, I take those dead fishes to market and sell them for a good price. With the money I receive, I buy more nets so I can save more fishes.”

The story isn’t at all about fishing but rather about an internationally arranged tour group that is scheduled to go to China and Burma (non-politically correct, Myanmar, and its military government SLORC, State Law and Order Restoration Council) and how disaster seeks the tourists out even before the trip begins – the knowledgeable tour guide is mysteriously murdered. Fortunately for the tourists though the spirit of the tour guide travels with them but unfortunately can’t communicate with them as she sees them getting ripped off by tourist traps and attractions that her experience and knowledge of the cultures sought to avoid. The tourists go on to commit serious cultural faux paux and are nearly kicked out of China and forced, three days ahead of schedule, to enter political insecure Myanmar  where 11 of the 12 members of the tour group are kidnapped by Burmese mountain group, a Karen hill tribe, thinking the 14-year-old American boy who easily performs card tricks is mistakenly thought to be “Younger White Brother” (intimated to be younger brother to Jesus Christ?) and his Steven King book to be the “Lost Important Writings.” (For those interested in knowing more about this mythical belief system of the Karen tribe, much can be found on the internet.)

Well, the story dragged on a bit too long for me but to resolve the tale, the 11 tourists were un-kidnapped because of worldwide publicity, the Karen hill tribe that perpetuated the kidnapping were supposedly awarded their hearts’ desire and given freedom to continue with their chosen lifestyle, and with those two underlying threads of contention resolved, the book could end.

I really enjoyed the writing and witticisms of the first third of the book but afterwards there were just too many diversions to the main story and the story got too diffused to keep my interest. I’ve read three other books by Amy Tan – The Joy Luck Club, The Hundred Secret Senses, and The Bonesetter’s Daughter. I think this was my least favorite, but I do have to say, I did get some new insights on the Burmese culture, a culture that doesn’t get a lot of print, so for that “thumb’s up”.

Some witticisms/paradoxes from the book:

“From what I have observed, when the anesthesia of love wears off, there is always the pain of consequences.” p.15

A tour guide effectively explaining “karma” to the tourists concerning a buffalo wearing blinders and thrashing around in mud while being beaten in order for it to thrash more and make smooth mud for bricks: “Past life this buffalo must be doing bad things. Now suffer, so next life get better…” In effect, the tour guide was trying to say that “your situation and form in life are already determined before you are born. If you are a buffalo suffering in mud, you must have committed wrongs upon others in a previous existence, and thus, you deserve this particular reincarnation. Perhaps this buffalo was once a man who killed an innocent person. Maybe he was a thief. By suffering now, he would earn a much cushier reincarnation in the next go-round. It’s an accepted way of thinking in China, a pragmatic was of viewing all the misfortunes of the world.” p.77

On Buddha and Buddhism: “All this talk on oblivion, of wanting nothing and becoming nobody, seems rather contradictory from a Buddhist sense. The Buddha did all this and he became so much a nobody that he became famous, the biggest nobody of them all.” p.148

When the tour guide said, “For your safety and security, please remain on the bus.” Safety? Security? The mere mention of those words caused the tourists to feel unsafe and insecure. p.175

On lucky money and Buddhist beliefs: Peddlers surrounded and elbowed them shouting, “Lucky money! You give us lucky money!” Lucky money is the money a peddler makes from selling his/her first item of the day. They believe the first sale brings them luck money for the remainder of the day. And making sales and purchasing is all part of karma. When exchanges are made, peddlers receive luck and the purchasers receive merit (in Buddhism for the next life). p.219

Rosanna of the Amish

Rosanna of the Amish is a touchingly true story of an Irish Catholic orphan who was adopted into a Pennsylvania Dutch Amish home. When she was about nine years old, one of the older brothers came to visit with her for the first time and would have “kidnapped” her on his return to New York and his Catholic upbringing if given the chance. Fortunately, she was well loved by Momly, her adoptive mama, and the whole Amish community was sympathetic to the soft-spoken cheerful black-haired girl so no opportunity was given in which the brother could entice her on the train with him to haul her back to the lifestyle to which she was born. And so Rosanna was raised Amish, married Amish, bore and raised three Amish sons, one of whom years later wrote this simple biography of his mother and the Amish community.

It seems the purpose in writing this book was to acknowledge a son's wonderful mother, who became a pillar of the Amish community, and to also give a factual informative introduction to what Amish life is really about. Joseph Yoder (1872-1956), the son, stated that many people, all outsiders commonly known as “fancy” people, had attempted to write about the Amish community but distorted the truths and glossed over the key principles of hard working, honest, law-abiding, sober, simple and quiet community-minded people. He didn’t want the reading public getting a sensationalized perspective of the Amish but to have a true portrayal of daily Amish life from birth to death from one who was intimately aware of the traditions and beliefs and how those traditions and beliefs often were misrepresented by a growing number of writers, of course, unfamiliar with Amish life. And so Joseph wrote Amische Lieder, Rosanna’s Boys, Amish Traditions, and Rosanna of the Amish.

To me this book was fascinating! I would love to be an anthropologist in a hard-working Amish community of farmers and live with them for an extended period of time. A drawback to that would be in the Pennsylvania Dutch Amish community that Joseph Yoder grew up in had as many as 6 different religious divisions based on religious beliefs by the mid 1900s, and it would be quite the cipher distinguishing their subtleties by someone from the "outside" interacting with a community that values words and uses them conservatively. I suppose distinguishing between the various groups of Amish would be much like distinguishing between the varying Protestants who share a core of beliefs but burst off of the core in a medley of subtle, and some not-so-subtle, interpretations.

However, I am a bit perplexed by just HOW these groups are different. Yes, I do realize this was an introduction to the Amish community but in this book the divisions among the Amish churches were explained to be based on a linear graph of Old Timers who did things like they had been done for hundreds of years to other Amish circles that were more accepting of modern conveniences. A few examples of how the Amish community gradually splintered away from the Old Timers school of thought were seeing no worldliness in wearing suspenders, worshiping in a church building rather than gathering in a home, "dancing" (seems to be related to how the body moves to music, and what kind of music, rather than "fancy" people's concept of "dancing" with wild or free abandonment). In any case, people who chose to have less rigid interpretation of clothing, entertainment, etc were viewed as more liberal and “worldly” and therefore could be shunned. Changing membership from the Old Timers gathering to another gathering was also reason to be shunned, provided that person had been baptized in the Old Timers' gathering; otherwise there appeared to be more acceptance of people originally accepting the more liberal gatherings.

One thing about this book, it strikes me anew as I write about it, is that the portrayal of the Amish church gatherings was not grounded on Biblical texts but seemed to be focused on non-Biblical differences. To me, this reflects the internal turmoil of dissention between the Amish groups that the author was aware of as a Plain person but failed to communicate to "fancy" people who want to understand the Biblical foundations of the group(s).

Doing anthropological research in an Amish community though would be very exciting to me as I enjoy working with my hands, I approve the hard-working simple lifestyle, and I have so many questions. I think if I were to be an anthropologist among the Amish, the two largest points of interest I would most want satisfied would be concerning religion and concerning health beliefs/practices. My questions would springboard from:

1. RELIGION - What are the core religious beliefs of the Amish community? What has caused the churches to divide? What kind of communication exists or doesn’t exist between churches?
2. HEALTH - What kind of health problems are typical of Amish communities? What kind of disease prevention is used? Are autoimmune diseases prevalent in the community – and if so, what kind? Does celiac disease exist in the community (big question as the Amish eat a lot of flour products)? How are doctors viewed – what kind of doctors? What kind of medical treatments are allowed and disallowed? What are the Amish beliefs about donating blood, organs, having operations?

I realize that the Plain people wouldn’t be comfortable talking freely with a “fancy” person like myself, but I think there are many values cherished by the Amish that the “fancy” people of the world could embrace to better their enjoyment of life and be better stewards of the world. Yep, I would love being an anthropologist in such a community with strong religious and family values!