"When you open a book," the sentimental library posters said, "anything can happen." This was so. A book of fiction was a bomb. It was a land mine you wanted to go off. You wanted it to blow your whole day. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of books were duds. They had been rusting out of everyone's way for so long that they no longer worked. There was no way to distinguish the duds from the live mines except to throw yourself at them headlong, one by one. --Annie Dillard, An American Childhood
I would like to live to be a hunded because loving and being loved are so good and there are so many books; but were I to learn now that I had only a week left, I would finish today's spell of writing, have the cup of coffee that I crave and go on with the one book I'm reading. --John Tittensor, Year One: A Record
I would too. But I wouldn't want to pass.
ReplyDeleteExactly. I was stunned by these last lines (above) and really appreciate/approve of her premise - which is that the real test might actually be whether you would have enough love in you to say no to sacrificing your family for the sake of your religion. Could you say no to God's supposed "call," despite the possible repercussions in your religious community? I never heard the story looked at this way before. Very interesting.
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