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July 2, 2009

I finished reading the novel Gilead by Marilynne Robinson this weekend. It’s a book about a dying minister, who is leaving a diary for his young son. While the context of these situations in the book are different, I found these excerpts amusing and applicable to my life with Lilly (and even the current medical drama with Ginko).

USING THE WORD JUST
(bad habit I have in writing)

People talk that way when they want to call attention to a thing existing in excess of itself, so to speak, a sort of purity or lavishness, at any rate, something ordinary in kind but exceptional in degree.

FINDING THE MEANING IN TOUGH THINGS
(our ongoing theme)

I am confident that I will find great blessing in it.” And that is what he said about everything that happened to him for the rest of his life, all of which tended to be more or less drastic … he told me once that being blessed meant being bloodied, and that is true etymologically, in English, but not in Greek or Hebrew … he did it in order to make account of himself, I suppose, as most of us do.

AFTER SOMETHING CRAZY HAPPENED IN A REMOTE TOWN
(made me laugh in comparison to what goes wrong in training)

All this seems preposterous. But, in fact, one lapse in judgment can quickly create a situation in which only foolish choices are possible.

ABOUT ARGUING MATTERS OF FAITH OR BELIEF
(which felt like debates between positive reinforcement & dominance trainers)

In the matter of belief, I have always found that defenses have the same irrelevance about them as the criticisms they are meant to answer. I think that the attempt to defend belief can unsettle it, in fact, because there is always an inadequacy in argument about ultimate things … So creating proofs from experience of any sort is like building a ladder to the moon. It seems it should be possible, until you stop to consider the nature of the problem.

A DESCRIPTION OF LOVE BETWEEN PARENT AND CHILD
(or in our cases, guardians and our dog friends)

“He would protect him as a father cannot, defend him with a strength he does not have, sustain him with a bounty beyond any resource he could ever dream of  having.”

A DISCUSSION OF HOPE IN THE FACE OF WEARINESS
(again, our ongoing theme)

This whole town does look like whatever hope becomes after it begins to weary a little, then weary a little more. But hope deferred is still hope.

About the Author Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related.

I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

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