The Waiting Room

Yee-Haw....I actually have a concrete subject today to have you ponder! Busy weekend but the things I wanted to share were about two books I read over the weekend and an interview that I heard on the radio this morning. The first book is called "A Rip In Heaven" http://www.amazon.com/Rip-Heaven-Memoir-Murder-Aftermath/dp/0451210530/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222116323&sr=8-1. All you STL people, this is about Robin and Julie Kerry who were raped and thrown off the Chain of Rocks Bridge along with their cousin Tom in April 1991. Tom's sister who was a teenager at the time of this incident, wrote this book years later and I highly recommend it. Many details that the media left out she brought out in her book. It is also a beautifully written book that focuses on what the family went through especially with two sisters being murdered and their cousin being arrested for the crime in the beginning (He, of course, was completely innocent and also a victim.) What the entire family endured; her immediate family and her aunt and cousin (Robin and Julie's sister) as well as the entire extended family on both sides.

But a main focus of this book was "they were just here, eating Chinese food with us and when I woke up, they were dead". How fast these things happen.....

So I usually never read just one book at a time and thought it ironic that my second reading choice this weekend was "The Last Lecture" http://www.amazon.com/Last-Lecture-Randy-Pausch/dp/1401323251/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222116602&sr=1-1. Randy Pausch actually died not long ago, so it's interesting (bad word??) to read this book and know he was just here but now he's not. I had picked it up several times (while he was still living and Oprah was having him on her show, etc.) but thought maybe the subject matter would be too emotional to read about. But it's really not and although I'm not finished, I'm thoroughly enjoying it and it seems almost lighthearted at times. But as he says in the book, there's that big elephant in the room....

So the interview that ties all this together, my dear blog readers, was with Alan Alda, who is also pushing a new book that he has out (sorry, didn't catch the name of that one). Someone asked him what sort of advice he might give a young person and he explained that he didn't like to give advice but he said, he hears about so many people that are waiting to be happy.....if they get a better job, they'll be happy, if they had more money, they'd be happy, if they had a better relationship or with someone else, they'd be happy. He said everyone needs to quit acting like we are in some big waiting room, waiting for what is going to come along to make us happy. Be in the present, enjoy what you have now, appreciate it all now BECAUSE like I've read in two books just this weekend, it can all be over so fast.