TREMENDOUS EVENING OF BOOKS, CONVERSATION, AND WONDERFUL DINING WITH THE NEW GLOUCESTER HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL JAMES COOK, CHEF KEN DUCKWORTH, AND THE LIT HOUSE BOOK CLUB

James Cook, the newly appointed Gloucester High School’s principal led a thoughtful conversation on Rebecca Solnit’s The Faraway Nearby. It was a pleasure to meet Principal Cook. He has been a teacher at GHS since 1999, most recently as the head of the English Language Arts Department. Principal Cook also spent nine years coaching the boys soccer team, five years as head coach, as well as serving as the faculty advisor for the environmental club, human rights club, student newspaper, and literary and arts magazine. A fantastic win for Gloucester students and faculty in appointing Principal Cook!

If you’ve never been to a Lit House book club event, please come! The events are open to Everyone. And if like me, you sometimes don’t have time to read the book before the event, after attending you’ll be inspired to do so. And of course we have the best food of any book club, with fabulous dinners prepared by Chef Ken Duckworth.

On August 21st, author Anna Solomon will be moderating a discussion on The Hours by Michael Cunningham. Click here to find out more and purchase tickets.

During The Faraway Nearby event we briefly discussed an essay by Solonit, which included the topic about moths drinking the tears of sleeping birds. I was reminded of this famous photo of a butterfly kissing turtle tears (some butterflies also drink crocodile tears, too!). Species of butterflies and moths that drink the fluid of another creature’s eyes are actually extracting much needed salts, minerals, and proteins from the liquids. As Lepidoptera are herbivores, they look for minerals from other sources outside their diet, including mud puddles and human perspiration. Male Lepidoptera especially seek additional sodium for egg production. This behavior is known as lachryphagy.

Julia Butterflies drinking tears of the Yellow Spotted River Turtle, western Amazon rain forest, Ecuador. Photo by Ama La Vida