The importance of the sled

I'm reading this book, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," byStephen Chbosky. Cyndi bought it for me about a month ago. She does that sometimes; buys me books. I'm very particular when it comes to my literary tastes. I try to read 40+ books a year, and I tend to stick to writers I know, or books I have heard about. Cyndi often picks things I would not normally read. She sees the title or, as people should do, she reads the blurb on the back. I usually roll my eyes and the wall goes up. It sits on my bookshelf for a day or maybe a week, and then I pick it up. More often than not, she's right.

There are a couple of sentences in "Wallflower" that struck me today: "And they will kiss someone someday. But for now, sledding is enough. I think it would be great if sledding were always enough, but it isn't." I read the sentences, and stopped. I'm often a fast reader, and can sometimes miss things. I actually read these lines over and over. I thought to myself, 'how simple they seem, and how true.'

I remember when life was so simple. All we had to do was wake up, and our parents took care of everything. We had clean clothes in our dresser, food on the table, a roof over our heads. We went to school, played with our friends, went to birthday parties, where we were not told, "don't bring me anything." The present was the center of the birthday child's universe. We went to the movies to laugh. We ate popcorn, candy, and ordered the big drink. We didn't care how much it cost, or what it did to our bodies. We ran down the street, waving our arms, sometimes looking down because we thought it made us faster. We didn't need an iPod to entertain us. We went on vacation, and laughed when the word itself--vacation--was unpronounceable. We watched cartoons. We dreamt about growing up, being on our own, having children of our own. We dreamt about having a cool job, like being a policeman, owning a pet shop, being an actor, or better yet, a writer.

And we looked forward to the snow. Inches on top of inches meant no school; not an hour shoveling. Sledding was always enough. I almost glossed over that.