A Song I Knew by Heart

I've been meaning to read one of Bret Lott's books for years now.  Jewel, perhaps his most famous book, was one of Oprah's books.  I still want to get to that one one of these days...  But I was delighted when Jacqueline and her mom were cleaning out their house and gave me some of his books.  I started with A Song I Knew by Heart.  It loosely follows the Biblical story of Ruth.

Part of the story takes place in my own home town of Mt. Pleasant, which I love.  I enjoyed his writing: smooth, a bit lyrical, sometimes too flowery for me, but all in all, a good quick read.

Funny story about Bret.  I really don't know him, but we met a time or two when he and his family lived in Mt. Pleasant.  I guess I was in middle school -- the summer after 6th grade I think.  I took sailing lessons (optimist. yeah!).  There were only 6 of us in the class: me; my brother, Nathan; his best friend, Jay; my best friend, Barbara; Bret's son, Zeb; and one more that I'm 98% sure was Sarah Sass.   We had a blast and I loved being out there in my tiny boat all alone.  Well, except for that one time...another story for another day.

Anyway, it was the end of a lesson, and I was hanging out on the dock.  Zeb's brother and father we at the end of the dock.  I was sitting down and so were they.  Bret said, "you know, if you spit, the wind carries it."  And then, he spat!  So that the wind carried it directly onto my face!  Gross!  I was one irate 6th grader.  I said, "Gross.  You are a grown man and just spit on my face!"  And stormed off.  Jay saw the whole thing and was quite irate himself...he was the one that told mom about it and was so angry on my behalf.  Oh, how I love childhood.*

Back to the book; here are some quotes I really liked.

We are so much more willing to believe ourselves, believe the lie we give ourselves to crawl out from under the fact that we are sinners and sinners first, no matter the way these days that word doesn't ring with anything but the dusty sound of old people.
Sin.
When we are young, it means, I have made a mistake.  When we are old it means, I have separated myself from love (77).

I wanted to ask all of them, any of them, wanted to shout to them and whisper or simply speak with my heart so broken I could barely breathe, How is the the human heart can live through all it has visited upon it?
How is it any of us end up here, at the tail end of this life, without being crushed one way and another by the sheer weight of the histories we all of us have lived out, and how is it the human heart can endure in the face of the truth history does not end until the last breath we give out?  How is it that joy and sorrow, like twin stars, never touch each other, and never disappear from the same night sky of our souls? (252).
  


I'm sharing this as a funny story.  Clearly, I am not scarred from it.  I don't think Bret meant any harm in it even if I wasn't pleased.  I'm sure he is a lovely man that more often than not keeps his saliva to himself.  :)