Free Library and Another Good Read….

I love the small "free library" boxes that are popping up all over. I found about ten near our house in Bay View and so far I've discovered three here near our condo in Port Washington. The other day I stopped at one and picked up Then Again by Diane Keaton. And I loved it.

A fascinating memoir, with very interesting "voices"….but that's what I would expect from this unique and "quirky" actress. Diane examines family, and love, and commitment…and life. There were many quotes or passages that really made me pause and think. Including:

• "She (Diane's mother) knew one thing: It all boils down to family. One day you end up having spent your life with a handful of people. I did. I have a family….three, if you think about it. There are my siblings, and there are my children, but I also have an extended family. The people who stayed. The people who became more than friends; the people who open the door when I knock. That's what it all boils down to. The people who have to open the door, not because they always want to but because they do."
• As Diane went home to tell her children that her mother was dead she told them "Grammy had a good ending…..I told them I didn't know the exact moment Grammy passed away because I was distracted by the sudden sound of flapping wings. I looked outside and there in the dark was a swarm of seagulls standing on the deck, as if they were trying to say goodbye to the nice lady who used to throw bread crumbs on the seawall's deck….When I turned back I knew I was in the presence of a miracle….The same brown eyes that had been closed for seven long days and seven long nights were open. Wide open. I asked Dexter and Duke (Diane's children) if they thought their grandmother might have been seeing something she'd never seen before. They both agreed she must have been looking into something on the other side of new." What a lovely thought….the other side of new.

And at the end of the book there was a discussion/interview between Anna Quindlen and Diane. Diane quotes Henry James: "Three things in human life are important; the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind." I'll try to remember that on a daily basis.

Anna and Diane talk about losing their mothers, and being worried about leaving their children "too soon". Anna says: "Sometimes I say to my kids, it's like the end of E.T. when E.T. puts his finger out and touches Elliott's forehead and says, 'I'll be right here.' That's what I think happens with a good and present mother, even if she has to leave a little sooner than she ought - that's she's right there."

And the last was a question in the reader's guide for the book. The question had to do with one of Diane's early childhood memories that might have guided her toward her life in the performing arts. The question asks "What childhood memories have greatly influenced your life or now stand out as significant?" And a picture flashed into my brain. 

I am about six or seven and taking a bath. My mom is sitting on the toilet (it's closed)! She is reading out loud from Winnie the Pooh and we are both laughing so hard! Some silly Pooh-ism no doubt. But now I wonder….this "small" mother act of reading out loud to me….is it one of the reasons that I now cannot go through a day without a book at my side? 

I like to think maybe…..at least partly…..that's one of the reasons.