Choosing What Matters

Take one hot South Carolina summer the year the Civil Rights Act was passed. Add a troubled white girl on the verge of womanhood and the black woman who raised her who has just been granted the right to vote. Toss in hatred and heartache, despair and a journey to an unforeseen destiny. Put this powerful combination together and watch bees swarm as you get completely lost in the FoodShed Summer Reading Pick of the Week: The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd.

I have been on about a three-year jag of reading nonfiction, deviating only once for The Kite Runner. Every other time I've picked up fiction lately, I inevitably mutter to myself by about page 30, "It's not even true." Just not a good way to embrace the beauty of fiction, but for some reason, I haven't been able to help myself. Truth has somehow become far more fascinating to me.

From page one in the Secret Life of Bees, when 14-year-old Lily lay in her bed and watched bees fly out of her wall "not even looking for a flower, jut flying for the feel of the wind," however, truth slapped me in the face at every turn. And, lo and behold, I finally found a fictional book that I couldn't put down, that I carried around to read in stolen moments, including while walking home, uphill, after bringing the kids to school one day, my nose in the book like Ichabod Crane from The Legend of Sleeping Hollow. I had forgotten how good that feels.

I have to share my favorite passage of the whole book with you, after Lily finds out that the three sister-beekeepers' house where she is staying was painted a tacky shade of pink because one of the sisters said it made her feel like dancing the Spanish Flamenco. One of the other sisters says:

"You know, some things don't matter much, Lily. Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall scheme of things? But lifting a person's heart--now that matters. The whole problem with people is--"

"They don't know what matters and what doesn't," I said, filling in her sentence and feeling proud of myself for doing so.

"I was gonna say, The problem is they know what matters, but they don't choose it. You know how hard that is, Lily? I love May, but it was still hard to choose Caribbean Pink. The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters."

Mmmmm. Truth. Warm, wonderful, simple, soulful truth.

And so now, the morning after the Summer Solstice, the longest, hottest day of the year, the day closest to the sun, a day where bees filled my garden, I wonder how close to truth I can be today when the heat presses, and oppresses. I wonder if I can choose what matters.

If you're looking to get lost in a wonderful work of fiction, yet find the things that matter to you, including truth, curl up with The Secret Life of Bees. Or stick your nose in it and take a good, long walk.



One Local Summer Update:

Besides the leftover green beans (farmers market)and blackberry/zucchini muffins (the garden) in the lunchboxes, a bunch of kids strolled through the garden and picked purple beans, tomatoes, sorrel leaves, and blackberries. My favorite quote from them:

"What else can we eat, Mrs. Baker?"

And some folks wonder if school gardens are worth the work?!

Choosing What Matters