My Thoughts...

My thoughts on Traveling Mercies-

First, I really enjoyed it, kept my attention and made me laugh and think. First, I just want to say "ditto" on all Kaufmans views. I loved the quote about just "being there giving grahm crackers to someone," or something along those lines. I think anyone that has been through some degree of their own personal tragedy can agree that the mere prescence of someone speaks the loudest.

I will also agree with kaufman that you never really get a full grasp of how Anne might view Christianity...but I also don't know exactly how I view Christianity either, however I do agree with kaufman that I think there are core beliefs a "Christian" should have. Hers seems alittle New Age to me, a bit scatter brained, and emotionally driven, but again, I definately saw myself in her thoughts alot and I feel like we would be very good friends if she were somewhat younger.

On the "feminst" side I do believe I will disagree with kaufman slightly here. I loved it. I feel like these days any woman who has confidence in herself, or is opinionated or head strong in any way is considered a "feminist." I see it more as a confidence, just merely being comfortable with who you are, and not really giving a shit about what other people label you as (as she puts it). I found it inspiriing and might find some feminist groups to join myself...kidding...kind of.

I like her chapter on forgiveness alot, pg 128 she talks about how she went around saying she is not a Christian who is big on forgiveness, but the other kind, i found that really funny. But i totally agree with her later on when she realizes that not forgiving somone is really causing no harm to that person, just yourself. she says "it's like drinking rat poision than waiting for the rat to die. I thought that was clever...

All in all i loved the book, I could totally relate to the way she thinks. I loved towards the end when she was talking about holding her elderly mom's hand in the sand, because she wasn't good at walking in the sand, and how much she loved her mom and wanted to help her, and was terrified of her dying some day, but then she is secretly resentful about how slow her mom is, lipstick on her teeth, and wanting to throw her in the road for a jeep to runover her...hahahaha, i really do enjoy how honest she is, and if we are honest with ourselves we have all had thoughts like that about people in our lives (if not i have just shared too much of myself with you all). One last quote I liked alot where she is talking about miracles in our lives

Pg 198 "Maybe its not a miracle to you, but I know where I was, and I know where I am now, and you just can't get here from there."

cheers to our bookclub book #2 -Strickland-