I would not catagorize myself as an avid reader. I don't dislike reading, but usually when I have down time I would prefer to do a craft or watch TV over reading a book. The other issue is that if I start a good book I CANNOT put it down. I lost a week of my life to the Twilight series - and the worst part about that was we had Matt's sister in town - who I LOVE - but felt torn between spending time with her and seeing if Bella was going to choose Jacob or Edward. (I was team Edward for the record.) For work I recently read "The presentation secrets of Steve Jobs" and was impressed. I enjoy public speaking and presentations and it was interesting to read about his techniques. They say he practiced something like one hour (or ten hours - I have no memory retention) for every minute of the presentation. I am just not that anal - so I took his "prep" with a grain of salt. My all time favorite book as a child was "Gentle Annie." To me reading is interesting but work because I read fast and I want to finish the book immediately! Plus I stare at words what seems like all day on the computer so I'm generally over "reading" at night. All in all - I would like to read more, but I so far have kept it to a minimum.
So now I have given you a little insight into the frequency of my reading - what I am going to discuss next is the genre of reading...and it is the same as television: LIGHT and FUNNY! When I sit down to relax I just want to laugh or watch something without much of a deeper meaning. I would rate my empathy as a 10/10 - meaning that reading sad things, watching sad things, hearing sad things impacts me in a very extreme way. It took me a week to recover from Schindler's List. I was sad for DAYS! And not that it isn't sad for other people - but for me upsetting things seem to really unnerve me. One time I was at a women's luncheon and Fergie, the Dutchess of York, was speaking about her time in overseas orphanages and I had to leave because it was too much. The rest of the day I felt like I needed to quit my job and go adopt a bunch of kiddos. I get very upset if I am watching something that I am not expecting to be sad and it has a twist I am unprepared for. And it isn't that I am uninterested - I actually think it is really important to know what is really going on in the world - I just have to take it in small doses.
You are now wondering - how does this tie into the title (and point) of my blog post. The title is "moved" because I read a book that moved me this past month. And it ties to the above "intro" in that it was an unexpectedly and "tramatizingly" sad, yet impactfuly, read. The book is called "Unbroken" - and it is the story of Louis Zamperini who literally could not be broken. And if you think you would like to read the book, you should - it is a phenomenal story. It is an autobiography of sorts so I am not giving anything away by telling you he lives, obviously, but if you want to be completely surprised by the book stop reading here...
Ok, if you have continued reading - I will tell you a bit about the story and why I was so surprised. I heard about the book via someone's blog - they were able to "sell" it enough to make me literally sign on to Amazon and buy it immediately. I even contemplated rush delivery!! I thought the story was about the famous runner Louis Zamperini, living through a plane crash just off the island of Hawaii and surviving 43 days on a raft with no food and only rain as water. And I thought that sounded pretty interesting. What the inside cover DOESN'T tell you is that after surviving 43 days in a raft with another crew member (they were doing a search and rescue - WWII when the plane went down) they end up getting "rescued/captured" by a Japanese submarine - sent to POW camps in Japan and literally tortured for another 18 months. What they endured made my skin crawl. Twice I had to set the book down for several days because I was so emotionally upset that humans could do such things to other humans that I was losing productivity at work and working myself into a mini meltdown. I mean, that is how traumatic these things are for me. I am reading about the torture of POW camps - but then it makes me think about the torture that happens across the world TODAY - sex slavery is rampant, child abuse, spousal abuse, gangs, drug wars, war wars. How do these things happen? And why? And how am I so lucky to live in the US with a loving husband and family, great life and insignificant "burdons." It makes me feel guilty to be perfectly frank. There is little I can do to save people in these horrific situations except continue to pray that God gives them the strength they need.
So as I am reading and I get to the point that he is unbelievably NOT dying from the conditions of the POW camp I am literally at a loss for words on how one person can go through 43 days on a raft and 18 months surviving a POW camp. It shows you that it is human nature to survive - and makes you think how overcome people must be to kill themselves. Because you don't read about many POW attempting suicide - they are all trying to survive. Halfway through the POW camp part of the book I had to put it down for 2 weeks because it was too upsetting. But I knew he lived and I wanted to know what became of him. Because up until this point - I am not feeling "moved" as the person recommending the book noted - I am feeling extremely upset - and irritated that the book got so sad and I wasn't expecting it to.
So Louis survives the camp and makes it home to his family. He gets married and becomes a drunk for about 4 years. Who wouldn't after going through what he did. His PTSD had taken over his life and I don't blame him or any other vets that go through that. His wife finally drags him to a sermon by a famous preacher and he remembers telling God that if God will save him on that raft he will devot his life to serving him. He realized he wasn't serving God - goes home, throws all the booze away and never has another POW nightmare again. He opened up a camp for troubled youth (as he was always in trouble as a youth himself) and served God the rest of his life. He carried the Olympic torch several times, re-fell in love with his wife and gave back more than most. So it was inspiring and I was moved. If you asked me if I would read it again, knowing now what the book is about...I wouldn't. But I did read it and it is yet another reminder that someone always has it worse than you do - and being thankful is a gift that you should protect and cherish.
Let me know if you read the book. It will make you want to yell at negative work people and tell them life isn't so bad...lol!
