same kind of different as me

So, this was a tough book. What my old bloggy blog readers know is that I tend to like happy, sunshine-y, all-is-right-in-the-world things...and I especially like happy and sunshine-y when it comes to books. I get so into each character and story, it's sort of...well...damaging to read a book about super hard and super real things. Thank goodness I didn't blog about books when I was reading The Kite Runner, is all I can say. I was kind of a mess after flipping the final page of that one. I just, well, I just really feel it all I guess. I take it all in. Sponge-y. This is sort of true across the board with me, not just with books. In my defense at my tendency to absolutely bury my head in the thickest mud I can find anywhere (which is why I don't really expose myself to too much tough and hard), I would be no help at all to society or the world if I were a piling heap of a mess in a corner. So a little burying is okay, I think. A little. And, really, this burying is especially okay with books. Same Kind of Different as Me was a beautiful story and so interesting. Opened my eyes to a lot of awful that's still going on in the U.S. Unreal. There was friendship (an amazing friendship), there was faith, there were lessons, there was redemption, there was a wonderful and true story. But, it was also filled with all of my deepest and darkest and truest fears - that someone important to me that I love and who is filled with more good than almost any person out there will be taken away. And this news will come when I'm least expecting it. That bad things happen to really, really, really good people all the time. And I guess that's the point of books - to let you into a world that you don't live and have you really feel it. That's the mark of a good book, I suppose. But, these are things I just can't chew over yet without getting filled up with fear. It's funny because when these things happen in my real life (luckily I have a very small list of these occurrences), I handle it pretty much okay. There's no pile up in the corner and there's no losing it completely. I'm still me and I get through and can help others through, too. I think it's the idea of these things happening that hurts the team. My imagination takes over and is 0 to 60 in under 2 seconds. It's fast and it's something I'd rather avoid. So, avoid I do...until I need to stand next to someone going through it or head the battle myself. Then I rally as best as I can. I hope. And, in truth, reading books like Same Kind of Different as Me and the story it told will help me be a better me when there are trials and things do happen...because they have a tendency to do so, whether or not you avoid, face things head on, worry about them, or read a book about it.