Yesterday

I ended up spending some quality time thinking about you guys and getting a bunch of good mail ready to send. I love doing that, and love dashing to the post office and getting it all sent. Once again I used the automated machine (sweet love) and actually had to wait 30 seconds for my turn. I love to glance in at the people standing in line so that I can time myself against their progress. I mailed 5 packages and still beat the woman who would have been in front of me in line...she was still waiting for her turn! You gotta love that.

Last night was our ward book club discussion of The Giver. We had 12 people there! That's a smashing success. I love how everyone has such different reactions to the books. I don't know why, but I'm always surprised by this. I tend to approach books with a very open attitude and really don't get ruffled by them unless it's heinous writing. Several of the women there last night said they struggled with this book because they were so upset while reading it. What? I can't decide if the way I read is better or worse or just plain stupid because I never feel like that when I read a book. I view it as a whole new world CONTAINED in that book, so I'm not upset about it (unless it's a true story like Cane River or something), but since this is a fictional world it stayed pretend to me.


One of the best parts of this book is finding out that they don't have color in their world. Can you imagine? It's inconceivable really. So much so that while reading it through the filter of the the experience of our world full of color, weather and differences it took awhile to realize their world was pretty much gray and unchanging. What's the point of having flowers? How do you differentiate times of the year? I can't wrap my mind around not having weather.

Here are a few quotes I liked.

"Even trained for years as they all had been in precision of language, what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine?" page 89

"Well..." Jonas had to stop and think it through. "If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?" page 97

"He found that he was often angry, now: irrationally angry at his groupmates, that they were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them." page 99

"He had seen a birthday party, with one child singled out and celebrated on his day, so that now he understood the joy of being an individual, special and unique and proud." page 121

"In one ecstatic memory he had ridden a gleaming brown horse across a field that smelled of damp grass, and had dismounted beside a small stream from which both he and the horse drank cold, clear water. Now he understood about animals; and in the moment that the horse turned from the stream and nudged Jonas's should affectionately with its head, he perceived the bonds between animal and human." page 122

"He had walked through woods, and sat at night beside a campfire. Although he had through the memories learned about the pain of loss and loneliness, now he gained, too, and understanding of solitude and its joy." page 122

"He was in a room filled with people, and it was warm, with firelight glowing on a hearth. He could see through a window that outside it was night, and snowing. There were colored lights: red and green and yellow, twinkling from a tree which was, oddly, inside the room. On a table, lighted candles stood in a polished golden holder and cast a soft, flickering glow. He could smell things cooking, and he heard soft laughter. A golden-haired dog lay sleeping on the floor." page 122

The woman leading our discussion said her favorite lesson from the book is to appreciate color. I was struck by that and thought how wonderful it is that books offer so much to us and that even though there is controversy in this book and all kinds of questions raised, the absence of color is a big factor. She said that after having read this book many years ago (back when it was being considered for the Newberry Award) she traveled to Ireland and felt like she soaked up and appreciated all the colors of green she saw there, and felt that if she hadn't read this book she wouldn't have looked at things that way. Interesting.

**Do you stop and think about color very often?
What things do you love the most?**