Gilead

Some of ye socks may recognize the name Gilead as the "hill of testimony" mentioned in Genesis 31:21.

It's also the title of a Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Marilynne Robinson. [ISBN 978-0-374-15389-2.]

I just finished reading it and now fully understand why it won so much critical acclaim.

In a nutshell, the story is written from the perspective of Rev. John Ames of Gilead, Iowa. He knows he's dying, so wants to leave some written guidance for his young son.

Of course, there's a lot more to the tale than that. But, I'll leave it up to you to read it yourselves.

In the mean time, you may enjoy some of these quotes:

(Page 85) His grandfather's written response to his father's pacifist sermon: "No good has come, no evil is ended. That is your peace. Without vision the people perish."

(Page 113) Explaining why he embellishes the story of his church's historic weather vane: "It is hard to make people care about old things. So, I thought I should do what I could for that poor old rooster."

(Page 173) Describing his hometown: "There have been heroes here, and saints and martyrs, and I want you to know that. Because that is the truth, even if no one remembers it. To look at the place, it's just a cluster of houses strung along a few roads, and a little row of brick buildings with stores in them, and a grain elevator and a water tower with GILEAD written on its side, and the post office and the schools and the playing fields and the old train station, which is pretty well gone to wees now. But what must Galilee have looked like? You can't tell so much from the appearance of a place."

(Page 176) On the generation gap: "I have thought about that very often--how the times change, and the same words that carry a good many people into the howling wilderness in one generation are irksome or meaningless in the next."

(Page 177) On why he doesn't defend his religious views: "Because nothing true can be said about God from a posture of defense."

(Page 190) On the tragedy of the human condition: "History could make a stone weep."

And, FINALLY

(Page 245) "There are two occasions when the sacred beauty of Creation becomes dazzlingly apparent, and they occur together. One is when we feel our mortal insufficiency to the world, and the other is when we feel the world's mortal insufficiency to us."