Pause

A quick pause from reflecting on the psalms for a short book report.

One of the things that is saving my life right now is reading good books...especially novels.  I love theology.  I love intelligent and thoughtful sentences I have to read two or three times...letting the words wash over me.  But I also love a good story.

This is a GOOD story.  It is about a middle school teacher and three young men in her class.  I totally don't want to spoil this...but suggest that you read it if you would like some insight into:

1.  Friendship
2.  The difficulties of family life
3.  The realities of the frailness of life
4.  Love a good adventure!  My English teacher was fond of saying that, "There are only two types of stories: a person leaves home and a stranger arrives."  This book is about three young men setting out on an adventure to see their teacher.

It is funny and insightful.

Two quick quotes that I loved:

Einstein said that imagination is more important than knowledge and education is what is left over after you forget everything taught in school.  There may not always be plausible scientific explanation for way humans do what they do.  Not everything can be plugged into an equation or reduced to the lowest common denominator.  Not everything can be summed up by a letter grade or check in a box.  Not everything has a formula.  Sometimes things just happen...for no reason at all.  Or happens for a reason and we don't always understand it.

For me, in my life right now, that kind of mystery...that I don't understand everything...that I don't know exactly what tomorrow will bring...that my master plan for the next year can crumble in a few seconds... but that I also trust that God is there.  Regardless of whether I can ever prove it...because I probably cannot.  So, why do we love the quick answer?  We know that on the most basic level that pat responses to problems in our own life usually don't work.  Why do we think they might on a communal or national or global level.  Sometimes things just happen...may we have the grace enough to embrace that mystery (which by the way the root of the word, "mystery" can also mean, "be quiet!) 

Second quote:

There is no such thing as dragons.  Never that clear cut.  Somethings the thing you are fighting against is hiding in you.  Tucked away, buried deep where you can't see it.  In fact for a long time you might not even know it is there.  Maybe when it starts it is just this tin thing you don't even notice.  Mistake it for something else or ignore it.  But then it starts to grow.  Maybe it is a secret you are afraid to share.  Maybe it is a sister you are constantly compared to.  Maybe it is just a feeling.  Nagging hole.  Sometimes it really is a dragon, or at least it is a monster, determined to destroy you or someone you care about from the inside out.  And you know it is there.  You just have no idea how to stop it.

Yes!  So often the thing I am fighting is not really out there...but in here...in me.  I can try to ignore or blame.  Deny or diminish...but that primordial ache just keeps on throbbing within me, until I pay attention.  Or as Richard Rohr says, "Pain that is not processed is passed along".  

This is a beautifully written novel that invites us on a journey...a journey that is both outward and inward.  As children prepare to go back to school...a book like this reminds me that we ALL have somethings to learn, especially from our youth!

Blessings ~