Hmmm.....Amos, I think we have some similarities......Try not to let it scare you.

PT, if I were to pick just one, Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird would fit your description. I loved reading as did my Mom and as soon as the book came out, she read it. I remember she enjoyed it tremendously but what I remember most was that she gave it to me and said she thought I might enjoy it. Although our tastes were often similar, a brief description of TKAM made me think it wasn't something I'd like so I put it off for several months. When I eventually got around to it, more out of desperation than anything else, I couldn't put it down. Although I would often re-read books later, I read this one again immediately. I started telling everyone about it but many of my friends couldn't see the point...just another book. We were busy with early dating, baseball, flying model planes, band practice and all those things of the early teen years. It wasn't a book easily explained.

It played on my mind for a long time and I read it over and over without knowing why. Soon though, things did begin to dawn on me and looking back I have long known that this book was a major influence on my life. Some lessons I learned and in other cases it verified what I was thinking and what my parents had been trying to impart.

One person can make a difference even when it appears they have failed. There were more elements to "being a man" than the rest of our culture often portrayed. Strength and courage were mental traits, not physical. "Gentle" was the first part of gentleman. The list goes on and on........

Back in the early eighties I was at a dinner where Mo Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center spoke. Along with many others, I waited to greet him afterwards and express my thanks and agreement with his remarks. I shook his hand and said something about enjoying his presentation and for reasons still unclear to me, I tailed it with, "Did you grow up wanting to be Atticus Finch?" He gave me a grin and said it was still his favorite book. We exchanged a few more words about it, although I don't recall exactly what they were, but I know he too may have learned a few lessons from Harper Lee as well.

Spaw