Reading to Understand Discussion Group
July 13, 2026 @ 6:00PM — August 31, 2026 @ 7:30PM Eastern Time (US & Canada) Add to Calendar
All Souls Interfaith Gathering: 4066 Shelburne Road Suite 2 (Building E) Shelburne, VT 05482 Get Directions
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Join this discussion group to increase your understanding of the world we are a part of.
At our next meeting scheduled to be held on Monday, August 31st at 6:00 p.m., we will be discussing a book that will help us to understand what it is like to be in this country as an undocumented person, neither black nor white nor Latino. Jose was sent by his mother from the Philippines when he was 12 to live with his grandparents. He doesn't know he is undocumented until age 16. When DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was created he had just passed his 30th birthday and therefore did not qualify.
The book is Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas. From the author, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist in this country: “This is not a book about the politics of immigration. This book––at its core––is not about immigration at all. This book is about homelessness, not in a traditional sense, but in the unsettled, unmoored psychological state that undocumented immigrants like myself find ourselves in."
Read the book, watch for the discussion date, then show up ready to discuss, listen and increase your understanding of the world of which we are a part. You can read about the book here: https://www.harpercollins.com/products/dear-america-jose-antonio-vargas?variant=44008633532450 and can find a reading guide here: https://d1ks1q58ecczx4.cloudfront.net/folio-harpercollins-us/reading-guides/RG-9780062860972.pdf
No tickets are necessary to attend discussion group.
Facilitator's Biographies:
Rev. Barbara Benton:
Barbara is a Minister at All Souls with a variety of contributions to our community. She is a Meditation leader, the manager of the greeter team for Meditation services and manager of the Care Team, leader of the Wisdom Journey of Aging group and a co-leader of the Big Talk and the Reading to Understand groups. She has recently retired after 30 years as a mental health counselor and is also a volunteer for Age Well and the VT Afghan Alliance.
Back in the day, she was a crew chief on fighter jets in the USAF, then graduated from The University of New Hampshire with a degree in Environmental Conservation. She lived off the grid for 14 years, worked as a hiking guide, and at age 40, returned to school to earn a masters degree in Counseling Psychology. Then in the early 2000's, she worked at the University of Vermont, in the Risk Management Department, ultimately as the Laboratory Safety Program Manager for the chemical safety program in their 550 laboratories. While at UVM she was also active in Staff Appreciation and Diversity/Inclusion programs as a volunteer, and maintained a small private psychotherapy practice for 13 years before returning to private practice and clinical administration in 2013.
Meanwhile, she has hiked all 67 mountains over 4000' in New England and about a quarter of the highest Adirondacks peaks. In Europe she has hiked in the Alps and the Dolomites. She is married to fellow congregant Gary De Carolis and is super happy to be a grandmother! In her spare time she does wicked hard strength training, reads fiction and nonfiction books, writes and is an artist in various ways. She has a particular interest in Buddhism and especially values the intersection between psychology, spirituality and kindness.
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John Howe:
