I read a book today that made me so mad! It was about a 17 yr. old guy whose parents are killed. He goes to live with his grandmother and starts dating a Mormon girl. He pushes and pushes her to go farther in making out. The whole 'love isn't love unless you make love.' That's actually not the part that upsets me.
I was a 17 yr. old once, even a 21 yr. old, believe it or not. I dated a guy who believed the same thing, who didn't understand why I was 'saving myself' for marriage. He also believed that sex was an integral part of being in love and not married. It's the way of the world. I don't agree with it, but I understand it.
This kid gets all angry when his girlfriend won't go with him on a trip that's supposed to help him in the grieving process. She feels bad, let's him go farther than ever before with the making out, but can't, or won't, go all the way. He gets angry, breaks up with her because she's not what he NEEDS. And here's the worst part, she keeps saying she's sorry. Many teenage girls, and some adult women, tend to be this way. He's broken, she wants to fix him. He gets all depressed when she's not around, and she feels responsible for his mental health - and he lets her.
The girl gets awarded, through tremendous hard work, a four year, and full tuition scholarship to the school of her dreams. Here's what makes me angry: When he gets hurt and mad at her for deserting him, and yells at her once again, she decides to give it all up. Oh, goody, everything's wonderful again. They can kiss and make up. This is not how I would want my daughter to react.
Oh, but wait, now he decides he needs to make his own life, follow his own dreams, so she can take the scholarship. He has to practically push her into going to school. And it's the first part of a romantic series. Aaaarrrrgh!
I'm not even going to say the name of the book. Maybe she grows throughout the series; maybe she realizes that their relationship is SO NOT healthy. Who knows? I won't be reading to find out.
I just want to pause and reflect for a moment on the first five words of your post.... "I read a book today..." Just so everybody else out there knows, yes, Jami will focus (disregard, remain clueless, ignore ;) so intently on her reading that she will complete a book while the world continues to function around her... and she will not even notice what is going on except on the pages before her. Yes, there was the time she sat reading in the living room while the entire family decorated our Christmas tree and she was so mad when she finally put the book down and realized we did it without her. We WERE in the SAME room as she was the WHOLE time! I love when she comes to my house on vacation and will stay in the guest room hours on end because she gets to read endlessly and uninterrupted - really, I do love giving her that opportunity. I just wanted to put this post in perspective ;)
ReplyDeleteRebuttal: Okay, I have no rebuttal for my debate star sister. BUT, would just like to mention that it took me TWO days to read it. I should have said, "I finished reading a book today..." And my kids were at school... and...hmmm
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