The Help

Stop what you are doing right now and go read this book.  As I mentioned a few posts ago, I’ve been completely immersed in reading this book and throughout it I kept wondering why the hell it had taken me so long to read it?  I borrowed this book from a friend months and months ago.  And it’s just been sitting on my shelf patiently waiting.

So what can I say about this book?  I loved the way it was written from the three women’s perspectives.  I love how they each had their own unique voice.  I was shocked and horrified and touched and warmed all at the same time with this book.  It made me stop and think how far we’ve come, but how far we still have to go.

“Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, “Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?”

Last week Eric and I watched several shows about the Civil War.  Having visited Gettysburg, it is not something you soon forget.  And watching those shows, and reading this book, really bring the point home to me how relatively recent these events are in our history.  You can read this book and think what a great piece of writing it is, what a great story, but ultimately it’s when you realize that these kind of judgments are still happening all over our country – that there are still people everywhere separating into “them” and “us”.  And the “them” and “us” varies, but it’s still all a separation.  And sometimes the separation still creates violence and hate.  But what I love about this book is that even with the odds stacked against you, you can still choose to make a difference.  You can choose to not see the separation, but instead focus on what makes us all the same.

“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”

Read. This. Book.