There are three books I have read that have made me cry. Countless books have made me think, have given me epiphanies, and have sparked new ideas and actions. I love to read. It is my escape. The work I do at the Festival Center is my passion, for sure. And it is VERY social. I spend the overwhelming majority of my days listening and in conversations with some of THE best activists, organizers, advocates, and all around people I have ever met. And I love it. There are days I spend my entire day in back to back to back meetings and conversations with people. And good things are happening!

But at the end of each day, and especially on Saturdays, which is my Sabbath, I escape to books. I read. I mainly read history, but I occasionally will read novels or something about current affairs. Every once in a blue moon I will read a Christian book, but I honestly would rather read the Bible. Why hear people talk about the Bible when you can read the real thing?

I sincerely love books. One of those books is All on Fire by Henry Mayer. It’s a biography of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Part of the magic of books is not just what the book is about or how well it is written – both of which are vital of course. But it also matters when you read it – what is happening in your life then. I read All on Fire as my time working at an urban ministry in Texas was beginning to wrap up and I was trying to figure out what to do next.

Garrison was an abolitionist who forced the nation to face the evil and horrible injustices of enslaving Black people. Garrison was not perfect, but I resonated as much with his imperfections as I did with his consuming passion. My favorite quotes from him were these:

• Enslave the liberty of but one human being and the liberties of the world are put in peril.

This seems especially timely, huh?

But the quote from him which resonated with me so deeply and filled my Spirit was this one and it was written in his first weekly newspaper, aptly called The Liberator:

• I am in earnest — I will not equivocate — I will not excuse — I will not retreat a single inch — AND I WILL BE HEARD!

The thing that drives me – that has driven me ever since I was a kid, has been my deep anger at people who are ignored. I absolutely cannot stand it when people who are experiencing injustice are also ignored. Garrison’s quote has become my own and I think about it almost every day.

The second book I am thinking about was the first of Taylor Branch’s trilogy on the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King called Parting the Waters. I read this enormous and incredible book in the summer of 1996, as I was learning Greek while in seminary. It simply is the most eloquent history book I have ever read. It reads like a novel more than a history text. And even at that time, I had read over a dozen books on King. But Branch’s book – far more than the Greek I studied, reminded me of my call and made me love Dr. King more than I thought I could.

The last book I will mention is the first book I read that made me cry. I have now read it four times – twice in 1989, once in 2002, and this year (I literally finished it Saturday). Each time it made me cry. The first two times it made me weep. The book is A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. I am not sure why I read it the first time when I was a senior in college in 1989 – I actually was not a big reader at the time. The book is about two best friends – John Wheelwright (the narrator) and Owen Meany – growing up in the 1950s and 60s. Owen Meany is quite peculiar in many ways, including an unchanging, high squealing voice that winds up becoming quite useful later on. As the story develops we see the gift that Owen Meany is to all around him. And what I love is that no part of the story is wasted. Irving weaves together all of the descriptions and odd moments into a beautiful narrative on friendship and the miracles we are surrounded by every day. Everything comes together for a powerful ending that has left me in tears, not just for what happened, but also for having become so intertwined into the lives of John and Owen. I finish the book time and I am sad to leave my friends.

Irving’s style of writing has greatly influenced me in that I didn;t just weep at the end of the book, I also howled in laughter throughout. I learned from Irving how to write in a way that was funny. I actually wanted to be a writer for a short time. I even wrote a short story that got published in my school’s literary magazine about a time I got lost on a beach in New Jersey. But I am more of an activist than a writer and much of my writing comes off as preachy and anything but subtle. I guess you know this by now.

One thing that struck me especially when I read it twice in 1989 was that Wheelwright not only tells the story of how Meany impacted him as a child, but how that has carried into his present life, in 1987. One thing that stood out for me at the time was the anger the narrator had for the Reagan presidency, which, when he was writing, was being consumed by the Iran Contra affair.

Iran-Contra was a serious political scandal when high-ranking US officials illegally sold arms to Iran from 1981 to 1986 while there was an arms embargo so that money could be illegally used to fund the Contras who were fighting the duly-elected government in Nicaragua. I was a liberal in Abilene, Texas, surrounded by my privileged, lazy, visionless generation who proudly considered themselves members of a “Reagan Revolution” which was so revolutionary it required nothing of its adherents other than to cling to their basest and most selfish inclinations. The present day voice of the narrator was a breath of fresh air for me.

There is a rather long quote towards the end of the book from Owen Meany, which seems quite prophetic now. I am quoting it in full and putting it in the all caps that Irving wrote Meany’s voice in:

“AND LOOK AT WHAT WE CALL ‘RELIGION’: TURN ON ANY TELEVISION ON ANY SUNDAY MORNING! SEE THE CHOIRS OF THE POOR AND UNEDUCATED – AND THESE TERRIBLE PREACHERS, SELLING OLD JESUS STORIES LIKE JUNK FOOD. SOON THERE’LL BE AN EVANGELIST IN THE WHITE HOUSE; SOON THERE’LL BE A CARDINAL ON THE SUPREME COURT. ONE DAY THERE WILL COME AN EPIDEMIC – I’LL BET ON SOME HUMDINGER OF A SEXUAL DISEASE. AND WHAT WILL OUR PEERLESS LEADERS, OUR HEADS OF CHURCH AND STATE…WHAT WILL THEY SAY TO US? HOW WILL THEY HELP US? YOU CAN BE SURE THEY WON’T CURE US – BUT HOW WILL THEY COMFORT US? JUST TURN ON THE TV – AND HERE’S WHAT OUR PEERLESS LEADERS, OUR HEADS OF CHURCH AND STATE WILL SAY: THEY’LL SAY, ‘I TOLD YOU SO!’…DOESN’T ANYONE SEE WHAT THESE SIMPLETONS ARE UP TO? THESE SELF-RIGHTEOUS FANATICS ARE NOT ‘RELIGIOUS’ – THEIR HOMEY WISDOM IS NOT MORALITY.’

THAT IS WHERE THIS COUNTRY IS HEADED – IT IS HEADED TO OVER-SIMPLIFICATION. YOU WANT TO SEE A PRESIDENT OF THE FUTURE? TURN ON ANY TELEVISION ON ANY SUNDAY MORNING – FIND ONE OF THOSE HOLY ROLLERS. THAT’S HIM, THAT’S THE NEW MR. PRESIDENT!…WHAT’S WRONG…IS THAT THEY’RE SO SURE THEY’RE RIGHT! THAT’S PRETTY SCARY – THE FUTURE, I THINK, IS PRETTY SCARY.”

Imagine if Owen Meany was here today. He would substitute “REALITY TV STARS” for “TV PREACHERS.” But Owen was right. The future is scary. Sadly, Owen is not with us, but here is hoping Owen Meany will say a prayer for us. Thank God for books.