Book Club

Last night was bookclub. I love bookclub. It is without a doubt the highlight of my month. It is the best thing that I do. In the slightly paraphrased words of Lola (of Charlie and Lola fame) Bookclub is my favorite and my best.

What I've been trying to figure out all morning is why.

Is it actual, intelligent, grown-up conversation, that object of cravability to every mother on Earth. I don't really think so. See I work, outside the home even (no pansy acronyms required). So, I have grown-up conversation all day. I also have a decently intelligent husband and a pretty great extended family. So, my conversations with the little one are actually the ones that I bask in and consider sweet bliss. Sometimes. Sometimes I think I'll tear my hair out if I hear "Tell me, tell me," one more time.

Is it the people. Specifically these people. There is no doubt I love these people. All of them. Every person brings something different to the table and it makes the conversation so much fun. We like to read books with religious undertones, which is especially fun because we have two Baptists, a Catholic, another Protestanty type, a Bahai, an agnostic and an atheist. Imagine the fun! Seriously, it could be miserable, but it's not. These people make it fun. But I don't think I would enjoy it as much if we were getting together once a month for dinner or movie night or whatever.

So, it must be the books, right? The joy of discussing literature, of disecting and examining, of proving your opinion and of defending your point of view. I think that certainly comes into play. It is all the things I love. The reason I have a (mostly useless) degree in English Lit. Because it's what I love to do. It's what I love to talk about, to write about and to study.

Last night, in the mother of all tangents, I described how the book Helter Skelter changed my life. It's a weird thing to talk about, and nothing that you are going to get to discuss in any college lit class that I've ever taken, but it's real all the same. It's part of me. I found myself getting all teary talking about it. Not because it was that emotional, but because it was so good to talk about.

People need to do the things that they love. That's all there is to it. Maybe you can't do it professionally, maybe not everyone can be the next American Idol or write the great American Novel or find a market for a professional lego builder, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't sing in the shower, write a blog with 3 readers or play in your attic with your lego sets. Don't let your sense of "responsibility" take you away from those things. Don't let yourself tell yourself that you don't have time for that, you need to be doing laundry or cooking a gormet supper for a three year old or anything else. Do what you love.

Right now. I mean it. Go!