Gilead

As you know, I'm not finished.  But, barring some incredible turn of events (or, more appropriately, the occurrence of any even whatsoever), I don't think it's important that I'm not finished.  Unlike any book I've read, at least that I can recall, I don't care what happens in the third I have left to read and I think this is part of the reason that I haven't finished.  I'm not anxious to find out what will happen next or how the story will conclude.  In a certain way, I'd rather that I never finish.  But in another way, I'm not sure I'll ever be finished reading Gilead, even after I read the last page.  I'll just start again, looking forward to discovering what I missed the first time and reconsidering my earlier reactions to the things I didn't miss.

There have been many since, but one of my favorite sentences from the book is: "A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension."  As both a father and a son, I am struck by both the meaning that sentence has as it relates to my relationship with my dad and the fear that "incomprehension" will be a part of my relationship with Cameron.  I don't know if incomprehension is necessarily a bad thing, and I suppose I may learn, but it certainly isn't a goal.

There are so many other passages that I'd love to discuss - only a few of them relate to fatherhood - and I'd be interested to know whether you guys would like to use this blog as a forum for exploring the meaning of some of them.  I think it might be one way of making the discussion more frequent.  Post a passage and provide initial thoughts in a blog entry and then use the comments function to discuss that particular passage?  And while I think there's a lot of ground to cover with Gilead, we can continue it with future books.

A few other things to get out:

• If you don't read The Daily Dish, a blog on The Atlantic by Andrew Sullivan, I recommend it to both of you.  News, politics, opinion.
• To follow up on some earlier entries, I still haven't seen the third Larsson movie.  I liked the second just as much as the first and I've heard great things about the third.
• Do we all agree on BC in 2013 (without wives) and Brazil in 2014 (with wives)?  Aimee and I would also be interested in an earlier "with wives" trip to somewhere warm.

I know I had more to talk about.  I'll add in the comments.

Hope you're both well.