Something everyone should know before reading The Road, is that it stays with you long after you've finished reading it. Maybe because the story lacks a start or an ending, but is just a snippet from the life of this man and his boy. If you were to take out just a part of a real life story and wrapped a book jacket around it this is what you would get. And as heartbreaking as any scenes might be if we could only be so lucky to have someone show so much love for us.Just after I thought I had moved on I have been sucked back into this novel, wondering about the author and wanting to know more. I found this 2007 Rolling Stone article Cormac McCarthy's Apocalypse by David Kushner.
Part way through the article Cormac talks about the diffence between the way you view the world before and after you have children. I have seen the soberance take place in people around me over the years as they too experience this change. In fact, my husband has become a sort of mentor to coworkers coming into his office to comtemplate the meaning of life before and after children. And I begin to think...
I can't understand how any one can abandon their child. I don't just mean true abondonment... for many such a final act would be better than having a relationship with a parent who is incapable of sharing emotion, forming an attachment and showing true love to a child. For so many years before I became a mother I swear this would never happen to me.
For many years it seemed it didn't matter. I wasn't sure if i would ever be a mother. And I will admit even now I often feel like I just play one on TV because I haven't been able to have any more children.
And after finally having such a helpless being placed in my care I knew I had to do everything I could to give this every drop of love I could squeeze of my heart. And that is why I am so passionate about the parenting choices I make... to give my son a complete family, to make his days full of wonder and awe, so inspiring him to be kind to others, for him to learn the meaning of hard work and integrity, to lead and love this child back to his maker... even if it is only one child at a time.
1 comments:
That book has stayed with me since I read it 3-4 years ago. Paul has read many more of his books and Cormac is one of his very favorites. He's like a poet writing a novel. Sometimes I have similar feelings having had just one child, but as he grows I see the real impact I am having as a mother and realize our family, however small, is a complete unit.
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