Book Club

What a day! This morning I had breakfast with the girls. This afternoon I went to Book Club. Tonight I went to Mass.

The Club went to see Linda's new home. It's beautiful and just right for her. She's an artist, so it includes a studio. We enjoyed it very much.

For this month's reading, we had chosen A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. We contrasted what our thoughts were when we first read it, and what we thought, today.

The most obvious change was how I felt about Katie, the mother. When I first read this book, I was about 18. Then, I thought Katie was mean and unfair. She obviously loved her son more than her daughter. And when she chose that the boy should go to high school, and the daughter go out to work, well that was unacceptable to my 18 year old mind.

Now, I feel differently. Katie worked hard, very hard. She did the best she could. I don't think she loved her son more. She just loved him differently. Perhaps, siblings don't see that, but as a mother, myself, I know that. And Katie was right about the boy going to high school. Francie, the girl was the strong one. She'd get her education. There was no holding her back.

There was something else that struck me now, that I never noticed in my teenaged reading. Francie made a bargain with God to save her mother from dying in child birth. An older Francie in reminiscing about that bargain, happened to say: "But now, she knew God better..."

Isn't that the truth?

As a child, I made a bargain with God to win a softball game. I promised to pray every prayer I knew, every night, for the rest of my life.

Well, we won.

But then, in the playoffs. I promised that if we won that, I would pray every prayer I knew, THREE times, every night, for the rest of my life.

We tied.

A loop hole?

Who said God doesn't have a sense of humor?