Lay down the hammer.

Something I have always known about myself is that I am a huge procrastinator. Which contributed to the fact that this post has only taken me two months or more to do. Then another two weeks to actually sit down and figure out how to log into my account and do it. I manage to get things done, eventually. I can't really figure out why this is, but I found common personality trait in Isherwood. First of all I found myself one night trying to fall asleep and I realized that Ish was a person with great ideas but had a hard time putting them into action. I don't know if my ideas are great, but I do have a lot of them that I never get around to. I think this was Ish's problem. He was aware of this personality flaw. This didn't make for a good leader when the time called for one. I found the beginning of Earth Abides very interesting with all of Ish's interesting thoughts and contemplations on how things were going to turn out and how he went about exploring. As the book continued the ideas fell a bit flat. I think this was largely due to his lack of implementation. The ideas were there, the beliefs were there and even a few people, but no one was ready to take responsibility and make it happen. Ish was the leader, but really only by default. And he didn't make a great leader in my opinion. I know they had been through this huge world changing catastrophe but they were beginning to make a new start. I found it hard to see why the old timers didn't enforce certain beliefs that they felt so strongly about. For example continuing with school and reading. Ish went on and on about how sacred the Library was, but if no one could read anything in it they would never be able to benefit. He may not have been able to convince the entire community but at least with his own children I think he could have made it more of a priority. People make their kids do things they don't want to all the time. How would that be any different. I think the relationship Ish had with his family, even with Em, was definitely tainted. He seemed to just be there because they were the best he could come across, not so much out of love for them. I'm sure everyone was different because of the circumstances but Ish seemed to live a life that he gave up on. He was just living. I definitely think he could have made more of an effort to live a full life no matter how different it would be from what he had known. With his hammer in hand he held on to the past so much but didn't pass it on to future generations. He left them to figure it out on their own. Which may not be the end of the world considering how the last one ended.

Amber