Me. Microcosm-ish. Multi-tasking

I have this aunt (who is actually a first cousin once removed... I think). Her name is Lillian. I have a memory of Aunt Lillian sitting at the kitchen table breastfeeding her newborn son. She has rollers in her hair, not a trace of makeup, a gray t-shirt with big circle stains in unambiguous places, and is humming a lullaby to her son as she nurses him. She's also reading the Bible. AND eating lunch! I was, maybe, ten years old? Anyway, I remember thinking, "She looks SO beautiful without even trying." And also, "Good Lord, I can't even tie my shoes and talk at the same time. How can she sing, eat, read AND breastfeed??" She must have noticed me staring because she called me over and put The Book in my hands.

"Close this," she instructed. "Then open it back up at random and start to read the first passage that catches your eye and see what message Jesus has for you."

I did as she instructed and, while I don't remember what passage caught my eye, I remember it saying something HIGHLY insignificant to my life... something like, "Thou shalt not let your cattle mingle with diverse cattle." You get my drift.

"Now try to figure out how that could pertain to you," she said.

I did. Several different times, seeking some kind of meaning, ANY kind of meaning with increasing exasperation at the TOTAL lack of meaning in front of me. Call me obtuse, but I had better luck doing the exact same exercise with The Vampire Chronicles years later.

I was reminded of Aunt Lillian because of the latest meme I was tagged for. Shannon from The Cole Mine has asked that I pick the closest book to me and then turn to page 123 and find the first five sentences, then write down the next THREE sentences. I've seen this meme floating around the blogosphere but I'd never been tagged for it until now. So here is what's lying next to me:

Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert

And here are the three sentences:

OK -- so we are all one, and divinity abides within all us equally. No problem. Understood.

Is that cool or what?! This is just one of the reasons why I tend toward conspicuous spiritual stuff written in the last 300 or so years.

Speaking of a book with a spiritual theme... I just finished listening to Life of Pi on audio, and I CAN'T recommend it enough if you are taking an eleven-hour road trip and would like for it to feel more like two hours instead. No, I am not exaggerating. Okay, maybe a little. But it is SO. GOOD. And I don't think I can get that point across strongly enough without throwing some hyperbole at you. So if you've read it, then I don't have to tell you what beautiful genius lies within Yann Martel's fictional award-winning story. But the narrarator Kerry Shale... man, he really took the story to another level. Because of him, I'm still shouting, "Richard Parker! Richard Parker! I LOVE YOU, Richard Parker!" in a faux Kerry Shale sing-song way that makes Jonah roll on the floor laughing at the geek that is his mother. Please go to your library and find it so we can talk.

And while I'm telling you what to do, did you read that Salon article about the six-word memoir? Salon asks you to try summing up your life (up till now) in six words or less. As someone who relishes the opportunity to use 20 words when 10 will suffice, I thought I'd have a hard time with this. Imagine my surprise when I came up with the following in less then two minutes:

Slow to learn. But learns nonetheless.

Please let me know if you, too, find yourself trying to summarily explain the significance that is YOU. I'd love to read your six words... no matter how short.

PIF update: I'm mailing out your prize on MONDAY, Lynilu. And TxMoppet, wherever you are, I need your address! Anyway, while I'm here, let me just say that I was putting this off because what I wanted to offer up was one of my signed books. Alas, they are not quite ready. Can you believe it? No, I can't, either. So in the place of Rosetta Stones, you shall be receiving two other books. One will tell you where to enjoy yourself should you ever wander into Colorado. The other book is one that I highly enjoyed by an author whose blog I visit on a bi-hourly basis because it's the opium of blogs.

LAST bit of randomness: I'm at MHM today. Yes, again ALREADY. I'm talking about a large Siberian Husky that I'd like to steal away with in the middle of the night... if only I was sure that I wouldn't get arrested (or have a hand bitten off). So maybe we'll see you there!