I can hardly believe what time it is. I’ve been reading this fantastic book I think you should all look up. It’s called “Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together” I found it last week while I was over for dinner at my friend, Debbie’s house. While she worked on her computer, I browsed her bookshelves. As I shared with her, looking at the shelves of books belonging to a friend from seminary is like being welcomed into the arms of a warm hug by a old woman. Unlike other bookshelves, I instinctively trust the books of such friends for not only do our libraries look a lot alike, but I am more open to reading the books I am unfamiliar with because the same people who mentored me and guided me on my spiritual journey, guided and mentored them.
This book streaked past my expectations into the category of books I believe will stay with me and is one of those books I needed to read right now. The story revolves around the lives of two men, one a white rich art dealer and the other, a black homeless man who eventually meet and form a close friendship. It’s about real life, tragedy, joy, wisdom, and a God who is there with us in it all. I think I outright cried through a quarter of the book. I can understand why Debbie bought copies for her kids as well, it’s that good.
In my own life, I have a friend, a brother, in Kenya. We have VASTLY different backgrounds and cultures. He has known poverty and homelessness as I have never imagined, I have had privileges he’s never known. Though we didn’t have the trouble the two friends have in the book in coming to the place of friendship, I can understand how two souls recognize in each other something far more than skin color and upbringing. Such friends find that a bond exist deeper than can be broken. It is a priceless gift when found.
365-09 #253