the weather

I remember the first book book that I really considered reading - one that required time and effort and thought. It was Charlotte's Web, and I was amazed and devastated by the beautiful friendships and emotions on display in the book. What a powerful book for a young child. And when I finished I was so proud and so sad, and I couldn't wait to get another book in my hands. Still today, I feel a certain anxiety when I get near the end of one book if I don't have another one ready to go. That book was my first real experience in enjoying reading and beginning to understand the power that reading has.

One of the books I used to teach in summer school and that I still try to get to in regular school is Their Eyes Were Watching God. I love the scene when Janie is floating on her back in the water and Tea Cake's voice asks from the beyond what she's doing. She says "I'm watching God" - that looking at the clouds in the blue sky on a sunny day is watching God. Whenever it rains, especially if there's a storm like the one Janie and Tea Cake went through in the Everglades, I think of that scene and the idea that - right at that moment - I am watching God. That perspective changes a scary thing into something holy - God is moving in a way that people can see.

Books have transformative power. Even when I go back to ones I've read in the past, I still see new things. This is especially true for The Road and The Things They Carried. After I read The Road for the first time I haven't been able to look at a shopping cart the same way again. And I wonder about the invisible burden our service members carry in their normal lives after they've seen combat. The veterans aren't the only ones carrying a load fraught with danger and booby traps. Their families have their own baggage to deal with too.  Elizabeth Samet tackles the question of the value of teaching literature at West Point when one's students are bound for the battle field. She contends that a literary education makes one better able to understand, process, and deal with new situations. Books can transform a person, and they can also pave a way for making it through.

It's not raining here today. It's sunny and mild. I'm looking out my window at an ill-formed yet lively green oak tree against a cloudless blue sky. But really, I'm watching God.


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