Perhaps one of the best books I've read in a long, long, long time. I had a conversation with Laura about how it was only written 12 years ago, and yet, it really was an incredible book. I've kind of come to accept the fact that more modern books will most likely not be like the classics. Modern authors seem to really emphasize churning out series, or seventeen books a year. And this was not like those; it is most likely on my top five favorite books of all time, taking a backseat to The Foot Book.
Moreover, it also had a moral that should be listened to: don't mess with something that's working. The people in the village in the Congo shared well with each other, helped each other, and got by - do they need Christianity? Perhaps food shortages control a population's carrying capacity - should we introduce GMOs?
This is a message to be heeded. After all, the Titanic sunk, the big banks failed, and the oil well was, in fact, too deep. And yet, rather than learn from these offenses of the past, we continue to strive for bigger, stronger, faster. We forget the tiny portion we are, in comparison to this immense planet. A planet that struck a harmonious balance before we were "technologically advanced," and will find a new equilibrium once our failures wipe the slate clean.
If there's anything that this year has taught me, it's that there is too much I don't know to ever feel comfortable making huuuuuuge changes to the status quo. This is not to say that change is to be feared, merely approached with extreme caution.
I've developed more of a respect for my world, and all in it. The tiny fish who swim in schools have just as much to teach me as the schools where we learn about fish. After all, isn't it ironic that we learned how to fly from watching birds, and yet our cross-continental voyages have produced air pollution capable of destroying their very lives?
My perfect isn't yours, nor yours mine. And to claim I have the right to impose my ideas and ideals across a population seems ludicrous; and The Poisonwood Bible seems to back this up.
I'm learning how to accept, respect what already is, instead of what could be. Because I bet that Mother Nature could construct something stronger, more ingenious, than anything I could ever imagine.
I wrote down some of my favorite quotes from this book, which I think are worth sharing. I guess it's a bit of an abridged version? AND! You don't even need to know the characters!
"One has only the life of one's own" (8)
"Curiosity killed the cat, but I try and land on my feet" (108)
"Childhood was nothing guaranteed. It seemed to me, in fact, like something more or less invented by white people and stuck onto the front end of grown-up life like a frill on a dress" (114-115)
"I was occupied so entirely by each day, I felt detached from anything so large as a month or a year. History didn't cross my mind" (323)
"The death of something living is the price of our own survival, and we pay it again and again. We have no choice? It is the one solemn promise every life on earth is born and bound to keep" (347)
"Listen. To live is to be marked. To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story, and that is the only celebration we mortals really know" (385)
"The power is in the balance: we are our injuries, as much as we are our successes" (496)
"Other people's worries to not necessarily have to drag you down" (516)
"For every life saved by vaccination or food relief, another is lost to starvation or war" (528)
"Every life is different because you passed this way and you touched history" (538)
So basically, if you somehow slipped through the high school cracks without reading this book like I did, it's time to hit up the library. Barbara Kingsolver.
Done.
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