When "The Right Words At The Right Time Volume 2: Your Turn! " arrived a couple of weeks ago for my review and I took it out of its nice, snug packaging, my husband let out a small whistle if I remember correctly.
The kind of whistle that says, "Ooh... a long book of possibly cheesy non-fiction. Boy are you in for it."
I shrugged and immediately opened it up. I've been a fan of Marlo Thomas for a while --because she was so adorably perky in That Girl and I used to mainline Nick at Night like it was going out of style; because she cares about kids and is an educator; because she seems to genuinely believe in the good of people; and finally, because she just appears to be a famous person who's never lost her head in the abyss and perils of fame.
So while Monsieur Meow lost himself in some sort of sport on tv, I started reading this book and I simply could not put it down. I was sucked into the spirit of it completely, and what my poor dear had to endure for the next couple of weeks or so was sessions of intense reading silence punctuated by little bitty sobs and blubbering. Every once in a while, I would be asked if I was okay --all the while getting the "I told you so" look. Yup... I'm predictably emotional, but this book is far from your average cheesiness. Or maybe it is exactly your average cheesiness, and yet much more than that.
After getting several more headshakes, I started pushing the book under his nose to read a few of the vignettes. And I don't know exactly which one got to him --made him grow silent, made him think, made him protest-- but soon thereafter he stopped picking on my blubbering and would squeeze my hand whenever I'd let out a treacly little whine.
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The original Right Words book was a compilation of short memoirs from famous and notorious people, whose lives were changed with simple words-- not always encouraging, these words, but always remembered by the writer.
As a follow-up book --due to demand and to a contest by Parade magazine-- the soapbox was turned over to regular folks who were given an opportunity to share their stories and their right words. What is compiled, then, is a patchwork of different voices. These voices could be anyone you know: there are older folks and younger ones; male and female; convicted and free; mournful and recovered; doubtful and resolved. Many of the writers have their own story of sorrow and hope brought to them by having lost a loved one during the September 11th tragedies. The stories are simple but the act of reading them --as the act of writing them must have done for the writer-- have a catalyzing power that is deeply moving.
Because at the core of this experiment --a collective encouragement session-- is the true spirit of realizing that no matter how different we think we are from one another or how unique we perceive our sorrow or our grief or our pickle to be, we can always learn from others or take something meaningful from what could otherwise be perceived as a meaningless exchange. In other words, some of these actual stories could have had all the meaning and connection of two ships passing each other in the darkest night, were it not for the time and love that the people for whom they've meant something put into passing them on to us.
This book is a sweet relief and a balm and a true gift. And my husband, though he will never admit it, found some timely words himself within, for his own soothing. But please don't tell him I told you.
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As usual, thank you to Mother Talk for letting me participate in their blog tours!
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