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Monday, June 6, 2011

love is [color] blind

I just finished the book 'The Help' and I really loved it!  

Anyone else reading this book?

Here is the synopsis, as taken straight from the author, Kathryn Stockett's website:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.


Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.


Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.


Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.


In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.


I am fascinated as I read the various perspectives of 1962 happenings, and I keep thinking, what a difference nearly 5 decades makes.  I can't help but feel grateful for the changes we've seen since that time, mainly because of how different my life would be, had these changes not taken place.  In 1962, marriages between blacks and whites were considered void

Can you imagine? 

My marriage would be void, all because BL's skin is a beautiful milk chocolate brown and mine is pasty, casper-ish ivory white.  It blows my mind to think that people actually believe(d) they are superior because their skin is lighter, and I am not niave enough to believe no one in the world still feels this way.  

It's a shame.  

We get plenty of stares when we go out, and they come from all sorts of people....white, black, young, old....but we're 'allowed' to get married and that makes me grateful.  Grateful for the changes which have taken place in this world.  Grateful for the men and women who fought so hard to integrate our nation.  Grateful for a generation who stood up for what is right and broke down barriers.  Grateful for parents who taught me that all people are God's precious children, no matter what color they are. Grateful for a husband who showed me that love is [color] blind, and it does not matter what anyone else sees.  

Go read this book.

10 comments:

  1. I really loved the books as well. I am so grateful for those people that fought for equality as well seeing that I am in an interracial marriage as well.

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  2. Very much agreed! I have been wanting to read this book! Need to add it to my list :)

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  3. Beautiful post. I am currently on chapter 6 of The Help, and I am loving it so far!

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  4. What a great post!!! I can't wait to read the book!!!

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  5. Amen!!

    It is definitely on my list of books to read. I have a HUGE pile because I get books from PaperBackSwap and am addicted to requesting books :P I probably should wait until I am ready to read the next one, but I don't. I love books.

    Anyway, I am trying to find the best way to put this. I have always thought that it is a beautiful thing when I see the contrast between (as you put it) "milk chocolate brown" and "ivory white" skin. It always makes me happy to see the two skin tones together. One of my favorite pictures from the wedding so far is the one of Jake and one of his groomsmen--they are shaking hands and the contrast between their skin is just beautiful. And you can tell that they are such great friends and that they truly love each other as friends do. I think that you and BL are amazingly beautiful together and will have gorgeous children. :) I hope that makes sense... It's hard for me to explain. When I see a bi-racial couple it makes my heart swell with love and admiration because I know that they have to overcome so many obstacle (still!) and I think it is a beautiful thing to have the freedom to be with and love who you want.

    Anyway :P Glad you enjoyed the book. I can't wait to read it!!

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  6. I loved that book! And it certainly is amazing how people could treat others based solely on their skin color. What's even more amazing is that people still act that way sometimes. What's so hard to understand about LOVING others?! Love is all that matters.

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  7. I loved the book as well! I'm reading 'love as a way of life' right now and it just grips the desire to be loving towards everyone tighter. It makes me sad how ugly people can be!

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  8. so i haven't read the book but I saw the preview of the movie coming out. maybe we can have a date night to go see it :-)

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  9. I loved, loved, loved this book! I'm excited to see how they do the movie! Love your post too! :)

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  10. I loved The Help so much! I read it last year, and I'm currently re-reading it in preparation for the movie coming out.

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