for one more day
Looking for a "quick" read? Mitch Albom's for one more day fills the bill.
Have you ever wondered what kind of life the dead live. Do they play harps all day long and float endlessly among puffy clouds or at the other place, do the condemned do anything but shovel coal into hungry, insatiable, and fiery furnaces for the pleasure of cruel, little devils with pitchforks?
Albom suggests another possibility. Spirits of the dead might just spend their days visiting people on the living side of the grave. Not all people. Just to those folks who, on the eve of their own deaths, are thinking about some relationship they had with an already departed soul.
In Albom's story, a man is at the point of dying in an accident. Before he crosses the line separating life from death, he spends one more day with his mother who died a few years earlier. For one more ordinary day, the dying son and his mother are together.
What do you suppose he learns in the one more day he has with his now-dead mother?
I won't -- can't -- tell you. You have to read the book and answer that question for yourself.
But I can give you a clue. If you are a motherless child, his answer is a probably a lot like the answer you would get if you had the opportunity to spend one more day with your mother. And who wouldn't like that opportunity?
If I had my own copy of for one more day– I have more confidence in my daughter's choice of books than in my own – there were a couple of short paragraphs I would have underlined, thinking I could benefit from a periodic repeat reading. Here they are.
"The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature," he said. "You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as did on the way up."
Life isn't just about growing up; it's also about getting old. Life isn't just the ascent to the mountain peak of life's best years, but includes the descent back to being hairless, toothless, dependent, weak, and trusting as a little child.
There's something extraordinary about an ordinary day spent with one's parent while looking for the horizon.
Have you ever wondered what kind of life the dead live. Do they play harps all day long and float endlessly among puffy clouds or at the other place, do the condemned do anything but shovel coal into hungry, insatiable, and fiery furnaces for the pleasure of cruel, little devils with pitchforks?
Albom suggests another possibility. Spirits of the dead might just spend their days visiting people on the living side of the grave. Not all people. Just to those folks who, on the eve of their own deaths, are thinking about some relationship they had with an already departed soul.
In Albom's story, a man is at the point of dying in an accident. Before he crosses the line separating life from death, he spends one more day with his mother who died a few years earlier. For one more ordinary day, the dying son and his mother are together.
What do you suppose he learns in the one more day he has with his now-dead mother?
I won't -- can't -- tell you. You have to read the book and answer that question for yourself.
But I can give you a clue. If you are a motherless child, his answer is a probably a lot like the answer you would get if you had the opportunity to spend one more day with your mother. And who wouldn't like that opportunity?
If I had my own copy of for one more day– I have more confidence in my daughter's choice of books than in my own – there were a couple of short paragraphs I would have underlined, thinking I could benefit from a periodic repeat reading. Here they are.
It's funny. I met a man once who did a lot of mountain climbing. I asked him which was harder, ascending or descending? He said without a doubt descending, because ascending you were so focused on reaching the top, you avoided mistakes.
"The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature," he said. "You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as did on the way up."
Life isn't just about growing up; it's also about getting old. Life isn't just the ascent to the mountain peak of life's best years, but includes the descent back to being hairless, toothless, dependent, weak, and trusting as a little child.
Mitch Albom helped this reader to enjoy the journey whether ascending or descending and encouraged me to set my eyes on the horizon where heaven and earth meet.
There's something extraordinary about an ordinary day spent with one's parent while looking for the horizon.
posted by John | 3:39 PM
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