I've got peace like a river in my soul*

Hey Carrie,

I just heard they are making a movie of Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger. If I remember correctly, that was the first book we read together in our Livewire Book Club™. Man, we are such nerds! I love that we named our book club, and I love that the name came from a place of great importance to us that no one but our old roommates would know. I remember that we both bought the book (I think I still have mine, though I have been trying to donate or give away books to simplify my life and my over-stuffed book cases, so I’ll have to check) and both underlined similar passages, and sometimes the exact same passages, of writing that were incredibly beautiful. When we finished we were both hesitant to admit that we were disappointed by the ending, because neither one of us wanted to bring down the other one in case she loved the book all the way to the end.

At this moment I am missing you so much because I wonder if anyone else will ever be so close to knowing how I think. Or maybe it was that I was close to knowing how you thought. It is not that we thought the same, but you knew what I was thinking. This may make no sense, but I’m sure you understand (he, he, see the humor in that?).

Anyway, they are making a movie with Billy Bob Thornton. I assume he is playing the father. He’s not my favorite actor but this could be a good part for him. I’m usually against changing stories from books when they are made into movies (something about not being honest to the book really bothers me, usually because I have loved the book as it is), but in this case they might improve the story when they make it into a movie. The ending was just so unsatisfying that a change could be good. The best part of the book, though, was the incredible writing, usually displayed in Rube’s thoughts as the narrator, or the writings of his younger sister, Swede. I guess visuals will take the place of some or all of Rube’s descriptions, but the words used were so beautiful that I would take them over an image.

As hinted at with the donating of books, I am trying to simplify my life and get rid of unnecessary things. To do this I have started changing my definition of necessary. After all, I could be moving many miles away in less than a year, and last time I moved it was a nightmare to go through my stuff and box it up. Perhaps you remember that weekend when I planned to leave for New Mexico at 8:00 am on a Saturday and instead left after 8:00 pm. Twelve hours wasn’t a big deal, but renting a storage space for all the stuff that had to stay in California until Todd came out a month later was about $200 worth of a big deal. I have re-joined Wardrobe Refashion to help me make the most out of what I have and to cut down on my waste. Consider me now in training for my future life as a poor graduate student.


*Don't you love the lyrics from church songs? That song was always a hit at summer camp, and every time I looked at the cover of the book the song went through my head.