"I never feel lonely if I've got a book - they're like old friends. Even if you're not reading them over and over again, you know they are there. And they're part of your history. They sort of tell a story about your journey through life."
-Emilia Fox (mobile.brainyquote.com)
Last week I had the opportunity to visit with some dear "old" friends, women who are a part of my history as Fox describes above. I can't remember when I saw the girls last, but it was 1-2 years ago in our hometown of Georgetown, Kentucky. This visit was no different as we met together on main street for a good meal at "Galvan's," a restaurant that was once Fitch's Drugstore on the corner. Although I don't get to see these high school friends very often, I know that they are there and that they care about my life. And honestly, they haven't changed since high school. They are the same funny, kind girls that they were back in the 1970s. No wonder I chose them for friends back then! Or maybe THEY chose me, I'm not sure, but they are amazing human beings.
I asked the girls why we didn't have contact with each other for about thirty years. Yes, that's right - we lost contact with each other while we were busy doing life, raising kids, moving to other states, working, and so on. I attended Georgetown College with some of them so I did see them until 1983, but after that it was like "Poof! I'm gone." I asked my friends how in the world did we get back together, and they said it was due to Facebook. So, once again, FB brings people together. Two of the ladies were never notified about high school reunions, apparently because no one had their addresses. It was almost like they didn't exist for a very long time. But that's all in the past, and we are back together. Five of us were together again, and it was great fun. Girls, if you're reading this, know that I appreciate you making the effort to get together when I'm in town. I don't take it for granted, because I know you could be doing a dozen other things.
What do my friends and I have in common after all of these years? Well, four of us played high school basketball together and can laugh about the memories of away games and flat tires on the bus, our coach, Mr. Bottoms, being ejected from a game, running the gym bleachers until we thought we were going to pass out, and eating bologna sandwiches on the bus. And who can forget selling fruit, running suicides, and running the play, "Cincinnati?" It was hard work but great fun. One of the girls didn't play sports, but we had several classes with her. She's a wonderful person, and I wish we had heavily recruited her to play basketball with us because she's pretty tall. Oh well - she's still our friend. The main two things that we all have in common is that all five of us believe in the sovereignty of God and that He is our ever-faithful source of help each day. That's what I REALLY love about these girls. The other unifying force is that we have all been through life and its many challenges, so we are survivors of the storms that have swept through our lives. These women are resilient, and I admire them deeply. I can't wait to get together again with them!
A couple of weeks ago I finished listening to a book on CD, Before I Wake, by Dee Henderson. This book is a murder-mystery where three women in a small town end of dying of what appears to be natural causes. A young woman is hired by a former co-worker to be a private investigator, and while they are trying to solve the crimes, you can see that she has a crush on both Nathan and Bruce. In the end they discover that a "designer drug" has been used to kill these women so that the cause of death couldn't be detected. Is this book a great novel?No, not really, but it helps to pass the time on a long road trip to Kentucky. And who doesn't enjoy a good mystery?
I'm almost finished reading another book set in France, The Little Paris Bookshop, by Nina George. This book is about Monsieur Perdu, a literary apothecary, who "prescribes" novels for the problems that people face. His bookstore is unusual in that it is on a barge on the Seine, and people come to him often and reveal their problems to him. The 43 chapters of this paperback will make you smile, and you'll enjoy it for the unique edge that it provides for book-lovers. While visiting a bookstore in Paris isn't unusual, going to one on a barge is quite unique, and you also get advice to go with the book. Monsieur Perdu gives advice about love, work, and more, and in doing so he examines his inner self and the losses that he himself feels. It's a fun story, and it fits well into the "series" that I'm working on as I read books that have something to do with France. As you may recall, I read The French House, Paris Letters, A Year in Provence, and We'll Always Have Paris. My next book in the set will be Hidden in Paris.
I hope you're reading a very good book this week. Let me know what that book is and how you like it. I need to stay ahead on my book list, so keep the suggestions coming.
Have a good week,
Melissa Hill
Book Blogger
www.onegoodbookblog.blogspot.com
Very nice posting, Melissa! Your friends sound great.
ReplyDeleteSince you ask, I'm currently reading Lucretius -- De Rerum Natura i.e.,On the Nature of Things. I got here by an interesting route. Matt Ridley was a guest on EconTalk, a podcast I like to listen to. Matt talked about his book, The Evolution of Everything, so I got it from the library and found it a great read. Each chapter was headed with a quote from Lucretius. Matt (we are on a first name basis) thanked Stephan Greenblatt, the author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern for bringing De Rerum Natura to his attention, and he dissed his formal education for not introducing him to such an interesting and seminal work. Based on Matt's comments, I read The Swerve -- and found it excellent, about Poggio Bracciolini discovering a manuscript of Lucretius in a monastery somewhere, having it copied, and reintroducing the poem to the world when there were no other known copies. Greenblatt briefly describes the book and its subsequent impact, which was considerable, but the best part of his story is the picture of 15th century Italy that it provides.
Here's a quote from Greenblatt's book:
"In December 1516 -- almost a century after Poggio's discovery -- the Florentine Synod, an influential group of high-ranking clergymen, prohibited the reading of Lucretius in schools. Its exquisite Latin may have tempted schoolteachers to assign it to their students, but it should be banned, the clerics said, as a 'lascivious and wicked work, in which every effort is used to demonstrate the mortality of the soul.' Violators of the edict were threatened with eternal damnation and a fine of 10 ducats."
Anyway, that's why I started reading On the Nature of Things. Really amazing. Philosophy in verse, and both the philosophy and the verse are beautifully done. I'd never read it before, but, I can't quit diss my formal education, since I had one philosophy class on Death and Dying as an undergrad that provided a handout with a list of Lucretius's reasons not to be afraid of death. The item I remembered was, roughly summarized by the professor, "better men than you have died." I found it, oddly, an interesting argument :-). I haven't gotten that far in the book yet, though.