Log Cabin Logic - Creating Success Where You Are With What you Have

Susan Luke
Luke Communications Group (1995)
ISBN 0964603403
Reviewed by Sandra MacLean for Reader Views (5/06)

I picked up this book because the title, “Log Cabin Logic,” resonated with me. I expected the book to tap into some wisdom of that place we all long to revisit. You know the one – it’s where you find the answers distilled from a simpler way of life represented by some bygone era where life is less complex.

On that front I came away disappointed. Luke did not engage my interest with her “log cabin logic” philosophy or point of view. In fact, I found her attempts to define the universal truths in her experiences more distracting than enlightening.

Nonetheless, I would enthusiastically recommend this book as required reading for anyone contemplating the adventure of working or teaching in another culture.

I really enjoyed Susan Luke’s voice of experience describing what it’s like to travel to a new culture and live and work in a foreign environment. Even though Alaska is part of the USA, Luke describes the many ways it remains a foreign world. I liked her acknowledgement of that and her insightful stories that demonstrated that the values and culture of the lower states are in some instances very different from the northern way of life. She is sensitive to the fact that there are hazards in trying to impose one’s set of values on others.

Along with the cautionary tales, she opens the readers’ eyes to the magic of becoming part of another culture, even as an outsider and even if for only a brief time. The teacher learns as much as she teaches and that is the true value of the whole experience.

Luke is a good storyteller who can create a word picture that draws the reader right into her story with a shared chuckle.

I was entertained by her description of coping with life with no indoor plumbing! “Humor, I realized, is a great companion for creativity. Perhaps it was my heritage, as my mom did things like sending cassette tapes of a dripping faucet and the toilet flushing with cryptic little remarks recorded as well: Remember this?”

I really appreciate Luke’s ability to remember some of her experiences with such a light touch. It is more memorable for that.

Luke is generous in sharing her stories, the good, the bad and the ugly. Her book is worth reading for the insights she offers based on her nine years of experience teaching in Alaska. At the end, she tells about her decision to relocate to Hawaii. I wonder what stories she has to tell about that experience?

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