I enjoy reading -- and I am ALWAYS listening to a book in my car -- but it's been awhile since I recommended a book. Last week, on my road trip to Shipshewana, I listened to The Art of Mending by Elizabeth Berg -- and I LOVED IT.
In the book, Laura, the storyteller, is a quilt artist. Many of her metaphors for life are about sewing...and I love the descriptions of her projects, her studio. I HAVE ALWAYS WISHED FOR A SEWING STUDIO...
The story was about a family with three children. The youngest daughter claims she was abused by her mother, but her siblings were oblivious...
I think this happens. In large families, there is often one child who is picked on -- by one parent or another. Then the siblings think it's okay. One measure of a good book is that it makes you think....and this book did that for me. And I think that every child has an amazing ability to live up to or down to an adult expectation....
If a mother tells her daughter she is worthless...the child will believe that..despite any other opinion or evidence.
Here's a sample of Berg's writing....
"As for mending, I think it's good to take the time to fix something rather than throw it away. It's an antidote to wastefulness and to the need for immediate gratification. You get to see a whole process through, beginning to end, nothing abstract about it. You'll always notice the fabric scar, of course, but there's an art to mending: If you're careful, the repair can actually add to the beauty of the thing, because it is testimony to its worth."
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