Thursday, July 16, 2009

Truck


I was filled with gratitude after reading Truck, by Michael Perry. I loved all these things…the cultivation of seedlings in the middle of winter, the preparation of whole foods, straight from the garden in the summer, the restoration of a 1951 International Harvester, falling in love with a woman and her child, the wedding and Perry finally coming to terms with what marriage and commitment mean to him. It is beautiful and real and I am warm and glowing with the simple abundance of what it means to make your way in this life.

I have read all of his other books, and I think what I like most about Perry is that he forces me to challenge my own stereotypes about things like hunting, gun ownership, small town folks, big city folks, and more. One moment my red flags are going off, saying, oh boy, this rant about gun rights is starting to betray you as a social conservative, and the next minute he is describing, in the same beautiful terms used for heterosexual couples, the love between gay couples he knows, and denouncing that anyone be deprived of their partner’s health insurance or rights to hospital visits.

And it is here where Perry works most strongly on me, in a theme that runs throughout his work: Be careful! We are human and complicated and our tendency to label and categorize each other into one camp or another is at best oversimplification, and at worst, just plain dangerous. And if you fall prey to stereotypes and rigid beliefs about people, you are really missing the mark in this life.
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