A weird happening with an even weirder coincidence!
So, I accidentally bought the same book twice from half.com. I think it was cheap, don't tell my wife just in case. That is the weird happening.
The book is "Listen to Luther: Selections from Martin Luther's Table Talk" by a Free Methodist phenom named Donald Demaray. I bought the book(s?) because I have a meeting with him in Wilmore, KY this coming week and I wanted something to talk with him about (shhh... I also bought a book of his on homiletics and one about the denomination, I know, I'm a geek).
The weird coincidence part is that in the inside cover there were two notes written:
Left picture says, "Dear Ricki, We have shared so much the last year. I am glad you are here. I hope you will enjoy this book like I do. Its like a treasure chest f gems or a box of rich candy. A little is alot! It is fun to read & think about. May your heart be encouraged as you encourage so many!! Love, Sara <3"
Right picture says, "To my husband on our first Valentines Day. Love always (can't tell - Gina? Lisa?)"
Now, I know it is not uncommon for people to write well-wishings in books, but these (1) seem very intimate. Not sexually, but certainly on another level of friendship, maybe intellectually (2) given at a time that seems rather important.
I mean Ricki (girl?) obviously means alot to Sara. Sara is sharing a beloved intellectual comfort with her friend who seems relatively new but they have gotten to know each other rather quickly, which kind of seems like it might have been a hard time in one of their lives, I am thinking Sara's.
Lisa is giving her husband a book... for Valentines Day... their first Valentines Day together as a married couple. Either he is a book nerd and she is an awesome wife, or there is something else. I want to imagine a couple. He is going through seminary, maybe even a new pastor. Maybe both. He needs this book for some reason. School, job, ordination. They are poor. So she scrimps and saves and picks up pennies. She buys him this book for their first valentine's day.
But after both of those intimate, happy stories, all I can think about is that they are both over. I am admittedly a pack rat, and Erin knows that she can throw away all my clothes and child-hood memories but I want my books. I want them. We spent long nights together jumping over the miles of hurdles it took for me to graduate and I enjoy them and so thank you very much but I am keeping them. The Lord himself would have to audibly speak to me for them to part. But these books were sold for less than a buck a piece. One dollar. How poor do you have to be to trade priceless family memories and a great book for one dollar? All I can think is that the friendship/marriage has dissolved.
It is probably something more simple than this. It was probably a move that caused people to decide what they should bring and book weight and space was at a minimum.
So, to all of you, find these people and give them back their books. I will mail them free of charge. I am thinking that Sara or Ricki might have been a youth leader some years ago, maybe in a Lutheran church. Find them...
This post got really Unsolved Mysteries on me quickly. Didn't mean for that happen. RIP Robert Stack...
The book is "Listen to Luther: Selections from Martin Luther's Table Talk" by a Free Methodist phenom named Donald Demaray. I bought the book(s?) because I have a meeting with him in Wilmore, KY this coming week and I wanted something to talk with him about (shhh... I also bought a book of his on homiletics and one about the denomination, I know, I'm a geek).
The weird coincidence part is that in the inside cover there were two notes written:
Left picture says, "Dear Ricki, We have shared so much the last year. I am glad you are here. I hope you will enjoy this book like I do. Its like a treasure chest f gems or a box of rich candy. A little is alot! It is fun to read & think about. May your heart be encouraged as you encourage so many!! Love, Sara <3"
Right picture says, "To my husband on our first Valentines Day. Love always (can't tell - Gina? Lisa?)"
Now, I know it is not uncommon for people to write well-wishings in books, but these (1) seem very intimate. Not sexually, but certainly on another level of friendship, maybe intellectually (2) given at a time that seems rather important.
I mean Ricki (girl?) obviously means alot to Sara. Sara is sharing a beloved intellectual comfort with her friend who seems relatively new but they have gotten to know each other rather quickly, which kind of seems like it might have been a hard time in one of their lives, I am thinking Sara's.
Lisa is giving her husband a book... for Valentines Day... their first Valentines Day together as a married couple. Either he is a book nerd and she is an awesome wife, or there is something else. I want to imagine a couple. He is going through seminary, maybe even a new pastor. Maybe both. He needs this book for some reason. School, job, ordination. They are poor. So she scrimps and saves and picks up pennies. She buys him this book for their first valentine's day.
But after both of those intimate, happy stories, all I can think about is that they are both over. I am admittedly a pack rat, and Erin knows that she can throw away all my clothes and child-hood memories but I want my books. I want them. We spent long nights together jumping over the miles of hurdles it took for me to graduate and I enjoy them and so thank you very much but I am keeping them. The Lord himself would have to audibly speak to me for them to part. But these books were sold for less than a buck a piece. One dollar. How poor do you have to be to trade priceless family memories and a great book for one dollar? All I can think is that the friendship/marriage has dissolved.
It is probably something more simple than this. It was probably a move that caused people to decide what they should bring and book weight and space was at a minimum.
So, to all of you, find these people and give them back their books. I will mail them free of charge. I am thinking that Sara or Ricki might have been a youth leader some years ago, maybe in a Lutheran church. Find them...
This post got really Unsolved Mysteries on me quickly. Didn't mean for that happen. RIP Robert Stack...
Sara led a Bible study for teenage girls, one of which was Ricki. Sara got a copy of this book for each of the girls in the group and wrote the same "personal" note in each. Ricki went away to college and there it sat on her bookshelf, unopened and unread. Occasionally she would glance at its binding from her desk and remember that there were people back home that loved her and cared. After college, she no longer "needed" it and so it ended up on half.com, along with most of her textbooks she couldn't sell back to the bookstore for pennies on the dollar.
ReplyDeleteLisa got her husband this book because they had been having marital problems and he was oblivious. This is why "first" is in quotes. They had decided to start fresh, as it were, and try to get back to how it was when they were first married. Neither one of them is very religious, but Lisa found this book for her husband, hoping he would read it and his resulting change in behavior would save their marriage. He never did and it ended up on half.com after the divorce.
Good stuff about finding out the quotes... adds another dimension - hmmm...
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry I should have clarified... That was all straight outta my imagination! An exercise in creative writing. I'm sorry if it seemed as though I actually knew what was going on in what people call "Reality."
ReplyDelete