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Today I had a phone visit with my son. He's a Millennial. I asked if he ever read "The Giver."

He did. He considered it to be an exceptionally thought provoking book.

Now here's the shocker: "The Giver" was required reading for him in elementary school. Fascinating how he could understand the significance when still so young.

Seems to me, in one's seventies one can find even more.

The Giver has a plan?

Please, please, please.
After Jonas learned what he did about his father and his community and his favorite girl? All so powerfully written; to me, feeling absolutely true.

Another important distinction, arising from Jonas's education: The shallowness of emotional life, despite all the constant discussions of emotions.

Very big resonance with what I've blogged about concerning "Why Human Talk Matters" -- if any of you search on that, you'll find what I've written. Just be sure to include the quotation marks around the search term.

This time I'm the one who's shocked: When Jonas learns about the color red.

Why am I shocked. Because I learn that color is one of the attributes of dystopian life that has been removed.

Jonas is shocked, shocked, when the Receiver turns off the montoring device in his room. It has an OFF switch.

Jonas has never known life, anywhere, without constant surveillance.

This free will question reminds me of a blogpost I published just today. Currently you'll find it here on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.

Or else you can find this article on Medium, or at my personal blog, by googling on this:

"Your Soul-Based Desires Are So Much More� than Your Story" -- Include the quotes in your search.

As I ponder this dystopia, I'm especially struck by the lack of opportunity to make the use of free will, the relegation of personal choices to only the most trivial matters, never meaningful decisions.

I found it appalling that the Twelves would have their one kind of work, for the rest of their lives, be chosen by committee.

When Jonas, age 12, reports for his first day at his new assignment, he discovers that the Receiver's door is locked.

Never before in his life had he encountered a locked door in his community.

-- Geesh, talk about no privacy in this dystopia!

As a person, as a parent, the horror registers within me over what this dystopian society makes common practice:

No privacy. Absolutely no privacy. Not even privacy about one's dreams at night.

Witness what is done about sexual "stirrings." The need to confess them, the need to receive medication to take those stirrings away.

Somehow Lowry makes this seem okay-ish. It's absolutely not.

An apple, not a ball. I meant to write in my updates today that the hero, Jonas, was playing with an apple.

If there's a way to edit these updates without deleting them completely, I'd appreciate comments from you peeps about how to do that.

Yes, Jonas was throwing an apple, not a ball.