Timeless

Great works of literature are truly timeless. I've spoke of it often lately, but this will be the last for a while. I've finally finished my journey with A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith.  It is amazing to me that words written by a woman nearly a century ago still ring so true to my heart when I read them now. This is the power of well written words. Timeless literature, eternal quotes. Some truths never change, and that is oddly comforting to me at this time in my life.  I've started reading books with a set of colored pencils nearby. Every time a passage speaks to me it gets highlighted. For those books I read more than once, each time through gets a different color.  I'm going to leave you with the two of the last highlighted portions of the book.  The first a prayer of a 15 year old girl named Francie:

"'Dear God,' she prayed, 'let me be something every minute of every hour of my life. Let me be gay; let me be sad. Let me be cold; let me be warm. Let me be hungry...have too much to eat. Let me be ragged or well dressed. Let me be sincere --be deceitful. Let me be truthful; let me be a liar. Let me be honorable and let me sin. Only let me be something every blessed minute. And when I sleep, let me dream all the time so that not one little piece of living is ever lost.'" 

The second a conversation between mother and daughter after a 16 year-old Francie gets her heart broken for the first time:

" 'Say something,' demanded Francie. 'Why don't you say something?'

'What can I say?'

'Say that I'm young --that I'll get over it. Go ahead and say it. Go ahead and lie.'

'I know that's what people say --you'll get over it. I'd say it, too. But I know it's not true. Oh, you'll be happy again, never fear. But you won't forget.  Every time you fall in love it will be because something in the man reminds you of him.' "

The last paragraph especially. Sigh. It's true. Timeless words so eloquently spoken and woven into a story that will stay with me for a long long time.  These are the reasons I'm in love with the smell of old book shops. These are the reasons I'm so passionate about losing myself in a good book whenever possible.  In no other way can you completely transport yourself to another place and time. And in the best of books: quotes, paragraphs, pages that last with you for a lifetime.  Not sure which of my pile of 15 books is next, but I'm excited to find out!