Welcome to the World

Reading this book was like being wrapped in a comfy blanket in front of a roaring fire (in the winter, or course – this would be terribly uncomfortable in the summer). I had no idea where the story was going to take me. It was like I bought a train ticket for an unknown destination – but thoroughly enjoyed the journey.

Sometimes I really think I should live in a small town. But would I miss Barnes and Noble or DSW too much?

Although Danielle P. chose Welcome to the World as a “light” choice (after Crow Lake and The Kite Runner), it made me more introspectional (yes, that’s actually a word, according to dictionary.com, anyway) than even Crow Lake. And the parts of the book that caused this self-examination weren’t necessarily main parts of the plot:

During a conversation between Neighbor Dorothy and her daughter, Anna Lee, Anna Lee asks “Mother,” Anna Lee asked, “if you could stop time, when would you stop it?” Although I thought of a time or two where I would have liked to stop time, Mother Smith’s response to the question was amazingly wise: “…I don’t think I would…I’d hate to take a chance on missing something good that might be coming up, just around the corner, wouldn’t you?” (pg. xxvi)

Aunt Elner (loved her) asks Macky “What would you do if you knew for sure the end of the world was coming next Tuesday?” (pg. 61) What would I do? Would I be closed off to family and friends knowing that the end was near? Or would I try to be as happy, friendly and loving as possible. And, really, since I don’t know when my “end” will be, shouldn’t I live that way all the time?

During one of Dena’s sessions with Gerry O’Malley (what a patient guy), he asks her, “Who are you other than what you do…I’m not saying that other people may not be able to separate you from what you do, I’m wondering if you can.” (pg. 130) Dena’s put in a similar situation when Dr. Diggers asks her to describe herself in three words. Who am I? How would I describe myself? And closely would that match how other people describe me?
And then, later in the book, Dena finds herself: “Slowly [Dena] was beginning to feel like the girl she used to be, the one that had gotten lost along the way.” (pg. 376) Dena then quits the network – the only thing that had previously defined her was no longer needed as she discovered who she really was.

During a visit with Sookie (I think Sookie is Dena’s touchstone), Dena asks her what she would be willing to fight for (pg. 189).

Believe it or not, there was a theme in Welcome to the World that we previously touched on in Crow Lake – OK, in reading the previous posts for Crow Lake, it looks like it’s a theme that I touched on. What does that say about me? Anyway, it’s “how a single choice can change the direction of not only an individual’s life, but the lives surrounding that individual as well.” The choice in Welcome to the World was made by Dr. James Le Guarde. It wasn’t a wrong choice, it was just a choice with long-reaching consequences. When he was applying for a work permit and got the “N” stamped on it for Negro. Had it not been for that, how different would his life have been? His children’s? His grandchild (Dena)? This is not to say that Dena’s mother, could not have made different choices in her life – Dena did – but “that one second, that one letter, changed the course of [Dr. Le Guarde’s] life, and of his children’s lives.” (pg. 412)

What a wonderful adventure.