a day of rest

well, and a lot of catch up, too.

first of all, some quotes i harvested from the kite runner. i liked this book a lot, although it was hard to read because i didn't find any of the main characters all that endearing and you could feel the tragedy coming way before you even knew when or what it might be. maybe there was something familiar in that, something i was relating to on some level, but it made it kind of uncomfortable. and then the story really began to weave itself and i got very, very caught up in the telling. it's a beautiful book.

the story was so foreign in setting and the way it began, that i didn't even feel compelled to grab my pencil until i was more than halfway through the book, and then there were only five or six i underlined...but i thought they were very beautiful, too.

"So when the Taliban came..."
"They were heroes," Rahim Khan said.
"Peace at last."
"Yes, hope is a strange thing. Peace at last. But at what price?"

"I see America has infused you with the optimism that has made her so great. That's very good. We're a melancholic people, we Afghans, aren't we? Often, we wallow in too much ghamkhori and self-pity. We give in to loss, to suffering, accept it as a fact of life, even see it as necessary. Zendagi migzara, we say, life goes on. But i am not surrendering to fate here, I am being pragmatic. I have seen several good doctors here and they have given the same answer. I trust them and believe them. There is such a thing as God's will."

"She said, 'I'm so afraid.' And I said, 'Why?,' and she said, 'Because I'm so profoundly happy, Dr. Rasul. Happiness like this is frightening.' I asked her why and she said, 'They only let you be this happy if they're preparing to take something from you,' and I said, 'Hush up now. Enough of this silliness.'"

And this is what I want you to understand, that good, real good, was born out of your father's remorse. Sometimes, I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.

"Father used to say it's wrong to hurt even bad people. Because they don't know any better, and because bad people sometimes become good."

"One time, when I was really little, I climbed a tree and ate these green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I'd just waited for the apples to ripen, I wouldn't have become sick. So now, whenever I really want something, I try to remember what she said about the apples."

I wondered if this was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.

i think i'll hand this over to my teenager to read now...

so today is just regular stuff...laundry, organizing, making doctor appointments...maybe i'll even get wild and take down my christmas tree. (everything else christmas has been taken down...and i kind of like this big green tree with just white lights on it standing in my living room...kind of...ok, it's getting a little old) our robotics competition is saturday and while i struggle with some of the issues it's brought to my life, my bil reminded me, as i was telling him some of the things my teenager's done that have made me proud to know him, that these are the opportunities we were hoping for as we began this activity. and he's right. so it's good...it's all good. but it was also be all busy, so i am very grateful for today and it's lack of destinies outside of my home, allowing me to achieve some of my goals here at home. (you know, like blogging and quote harvesting...priorities and stuff like that...ha)

peace