Gifts from the Book Store

It was a quiet day at Logos.  

When I first got to the store, I picked a photo book to read.

This was a book which had been hastily assembled following the big earthquake in San Francisco in 1989, as a fund-raiser for earthquake victims.  Kind of cheating as far as "reading" is concerned, but it was interesting to look through

There were little pockets of customers throughout the afternoon.   One poor woman who bought a copy of the book "Scarpetta" had to listen to me telling her how bad Patricia Cornwell has become, what a disappointment her books are now and how much I didn't like "Scarpetta" when I read it myself.  Bad PR person, me!

But most of the day was quiet and after I finished ":15 Seconds" I chose a good book for a quiet day, 

I had chosen this particular book because it has long been one of my mother's favorites and I figured now was a good time to see why it was that she liked the book so much.

I don't know why I never think of my mother as reading introspective books like this.  She loves authors like Nora Roberts and Maeve Binchy and Belva Plain.  But I forget that she has been reading religious books for as long as I can remember.  She reads Thomas Merton and books of meditations, and some other books I can't remember now.  So it's not surprising that she has been so taken with this book.

And in reading it, I could see why it would appeal to her.   Morrow-Lindbergh first published this in in 1955.  It was written when she was going through a difficult time in her life and had gone off on a vacation by herself, on an island away from all distractions where she could sit and think and write, work through some of her problems and look to the future as she was trying to find the best way to go through her middle years.  While much of its message is timeless, I think the picture she paints of the modern woman is very much a portrait of that time, when women ran the house, made it a home, took care of the children and didn't go off and have a career.   It was my mother of the 1950s, in the years before she found a job and started her career with the Bank of America.

In the book, Morrow-Lindbergh discusses the importance of having time to be by yourself, free from all distractions, to learn who you are, to be at peace with yourself.  A lot of it didn't speak to me, but then she hit a spot where I really had to slow my reading and savor it.  It occurred to me that if I had read it 25 years ago, it might have given me some food for thought regarding my life, especially when it came to things that were important in raising children.

Around 5 p.m., I had a book store crisis of sorts.  Everyone who had come into the store to purchase something had given me a $20 bill and I had no smaller bills in the cash register, so I called Susan to let her know that she should bring some more change.  I found change for $20 in my wallet and made change and a woman who over heard my conversation gave me change.  Susan also arrived earlier than usual so she could add money to the till.

Walt was at the symphony, so I had to walk to the bus stop again.   I was hoping it wouldn't be too bad, without the cane, which I had decided not to bring to work with me.  I took it slowly and as I walked the knee began hurting more, but it wasn't terrible.

When I got on the bus, the seats set aside for the "old and disabled" were occupied by the young and able-bodied, so I had to walk a bit down the aisle to get to a seat, and naturally, the bus doesn't wait until you are seated before starting again, so I was kind of hurtled forward and twisted my knee as I got into a seat.   That didn't help things much!

When I got home, I took Advil and iced the knee and it was still painful at the end of the day, but when I woke up this morning, it feels almost normal, so I am encouraged that it will be OK for the trip.