“All I'm saying is, kindness don't have no boundaries.”
Game on! Football season started tonight. I’m watching the Peyton-less Broncos and feeling downright blue about it. I don’t know if football will ever feel the same. This is not normal, is it? No, not normal in the slightest. Maybe my oddities have something to do with the year (which will remain numberless) I was born? Thanks to our trusty intern who may or may not have a birthday today, I discovered the most popular book in the year I was born was John Updike’s Couples. This explains a lot, doesn’t it? I mean really…in an elite collection with champions like To Kill a Mockingbird, The Color Purple, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Of Mice and Men and The Help…Couples? I officially feel cheated.
Nevermind all that. If it’s Thursday Night Football, it’s also Throwback Thursday. And where I’ve mentioned The Help, let’s celebrate that book’s unmistakable greatness. Kathyrn Stockett’s debut novel is one of my favorite reads of the past decade. Yes, you read that right. Of. The. Past. Decade. I no longer remember what occasion inspired Rae to give me such a gold star. But I took an immediate shine to Stockett’s unforgettable characters, which include sassy Minnie (I love her), gentle Aibileen (I want to be like her), and Skeeter who’s a bit of a misfit (I admire her). The Help is a poignant reminder that friendship and love can bridge the most unlikely divides, even deeply engrained ones brought on by prejudice. There’s no limit to what love and kindness can achieve.