The thrift store book or More than I bargained for...

We're going to Michigan tonight. I had forgotten to go to the library earlier in the week to get a couple of books for the ride and I was thinking about whether or not I had the ambition to get up and head that way before Mike gets home. I don't, by the way. Then I remembered that the other day, Mike dropped me off at the thrift store and said I should get a couple of cheap books. I proceeded to get about 20...hey, they were 25 and 50 cents! Get off my back! Anyway, I've read most of them but as I sat here thinking about going to the library, I realized that I'd set aside a couple of the books and hadn't even touched them yet. I picked them up to see if they were acceptable and saw that I'd bought Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh even though I'd once read it years ago. I can never resist buying a book I've read before (and liked) from a thrift store. I re-read books over and over - so 25 cents is a small investment to pay for the enjoyment I'll get from them. I'd read this book before - years and years before. In fact, right now I don't even really remember much about it at all. That's how long ago it's been.

I picked it up and looked at it. I turned it over and looked at the reviews on the back of the book jacket. Then I tossed it down onto table and turned to get a bottle of water from the fridge. When I turned around, I saw that it had landed and opened. On the blank page at the front was a handwritten note.

6-12-87
Dear Kristin

At your age, you probably will wonder why I gave you this book.

At 20, you will think it an interesting collection of thoughts written by an old woman.

But at 30, and every year after you will find this book has not only found a place in your heart, but the truth it contains will have a place in your life.

Enjoy - many times,
Dareen Barlow


I made a cup of hot tea, held the book and thought about it while I sipped. I'm fascinated. Who is Kristin? Who is Dareen Barlow? Why is she giving Kristin this book? How old was Kristin when she got the book? How old is she now? Why doesn't she still have it? Did something happen to her? Did she give up on understanding the metaphor? Did she become disillusioned with life and get rid of all of the leftover trinkets from her childhood? What disillusioned her? Was it a man? It had to be a man - it's always a man. Was it unrequited love? Was it a divorce? Did he leave her for the nanny? Why is it always the nanny?! Or her sister! Oh, my God...he left her for her sister and now the whole family's torn apart. What did she do then? Did she go back to school and make a better life for herself or did she fall into a deep depression and resort to plastic surgery to fix her perceived flaws which she feels drove her husband to prefer her sister? Or did she take up with a much younger man and move to St. Martinque? With the millions of dollars that she got from her husband when she and her lawyer gouged him in the divorce settlement. Ha ha! Adultery's a bitch - serves you right, you jerk!

I suddenly realized I'd spent an hour and a half thinking about this and inventing scenarios, each more outrageous than the last. Who needs a book for entertainment?! Not me.