Monday, September 27, 2004

What would you save?

Eudora Welty's mother rushed into her burning house to save her collection of the works of Charles Dickens. Her neighbors thought her crazy. I empathize. And I got to thinking what would I rush in to save? Oh, there are the given things: videos and photograph albums of the family, the baby book, a family Bible, cherished pictures on the wall, the Zoe CDs and folios, the memory book made by Brandon and Sheryl and presented to me on Christmas, 2000,the three books of illustrated poems and scriptures given me by Bess Walton, my journals of quotations, and the wedding albums, etc.

Aside from those, what book would I rush in to save? I have so many favorites it is hard to say--maybe the short story book Sam gave me, the antique geography book used by Sam's dad in school, my mother's school text of Romeo and Juliet, my out-of-print copy of The Harvester, or Sam's old book about William Greenhill. But what "regular" book? I guess it would have to be Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies--surely one of my favorite books of all time.

What would you save?

No comments: