A Stone Is Most Precious Where it Belongs: A Memoir of Uyghur Exile, Hope, and Survival Book Review

When all is lost, hope is the only thing that keeps us alive.

A Stone Is Most Precious Where it Belongs: A Memoir of Uyghur Exile, Hope, and Survival, by Gulchehra Hoja, was published last month. Born in 1973 to an Uyghur family in East Turkestan, her childhood was a normal one. But as she got older, the Chinese government began to tighten its grip on her people and other minorities. A historian of the Uyghurs by birth, she was proud of who and where she came from.

As a young woman, she became a local celebrity and an icon of her community. But, as she began to understand what the government was doing, she began to ask questions. These questions forced her to flee and make her way to America while those she loved were being persecuted.

Wow. This book is amazing. This memoir is both heartbreaking and inspiring. Her bravery alone is worth the read. She could have remained silent, even after leaving everything and everyone behind. But instead, she is speaking out, knowing full well that her family and friends will pay the price.

What Ms. Hoja is doing should inspire us all to speak up against injustice and those who are discriminated against because they are different.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely.

A Stone Is Most Precious Where it Belongs: A Memoir of Uyghur Exile, Hope, and Survival is available wherever books are sold.

Advertisement

Thoughts On Mayor Adams’s Church and State Statement

The separation between church and state is one of the foundational ideals of American democracy. The idea that one’s religion (if they have one) is divided from the government was and still is earth-shattering.

Last week, New York City Mayor Eric Adams made the following statement about this distance.

“Don’t tell me about no separation of church and state. State is the body; church is the heart. You take the heart out of the body, the body dies,” he told religious leaders at the event held at the main branch of the New York Public Library.

“I can’t separate my belief because I’m an elected official. When I walk, I walk with God. When I talk, I talk with God. When I put policies in place, I put them in with a God-like approach to them ― that’s who I am,” he said, later adding that “when we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.”

“When we took prayers out of schools, guns came into schools.”

— NYC Mayor Eric Adams (D) speaking at the New York Public Library interfaith breakfast pic.twitter.com/2GkxKCB5bX

— The Recount (@therecount) February 28, 2023

I get it, his audience was clergy from various faith groups. While he is entitled to pray to whatever higher entity he prays to, he does not have the right to force his beliefs on others.

"Don't tell me about no separation of church and state."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams explains a controversial remark he made at an interfaith breakfast. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/KtMCSb6Dm4

— CNN (@CNN) March 5, 2023

What is more concerning was the proposition that had there been prayers in school, a litany of societal issues would be non-existent. Specifically, mass shootings that take place within educational settings. Two points stick out. The first is whose prayers are said if they are said at all? Given the diversity in this city, the mere thought of this question is contentious from the start. The second is that the only way to prevent school shootings is to enact sensible and national gun control laws.

Every politician puts their foot in their mouth at least once in a while. I guess this is Mayor Adam’s time.

A Doll’s House Play Review

Some of the most important works of our era last because they speak to the issues in our world that we continue to struggle with.

Recently, a new revival of Henrik Ibsen‘s A Doll’s House opened on Broadway. The play stars Jessica Chastain as Nora Helmer and Arian Moayed as her husband, Torvald. Though he loves her, he does not exactly respect her.

When Torvald accepts an offer of a new job (and a larger salary), it seems that their financial troubles are in the rearview mirror. But a secret from her past and a decision she made to save his life have come back to bite her in the ass.

It is amazing to me that this play was written when modern feminism was in its infancy and by a cisgender man who could have easily created a tragic character ( a la Anna Karenina).

Instead, Nora goes on a journey of emotional discovery that is complicated, disturbing, and revealing. In Chastain’s hands, you understand her want to be loved and her eventual desperation to find herself away from the labels she was raised to believe were normal.

Written by playwright Amy Herzog and told on a bare stage with the actors wearing modern clothing and moving around a circular slow-moving stage, the emphasis is on the story. In doing so, it reminds me the audience of not only the power of this story but that it is also sadly still relevant in 2023.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely.

A Doll’s House is playing at the Hudson theater until June 4th, 2023. Check the websites for tickets and showtimes.

P.S. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Women’s History Month.