THE VOICE

If you have read the book, you are familiar with the post title. It is a book by one of my favorite authors. A book I've completed three times. A story that is unique and neoteric everytime I read it. One that varitally impacts me in new ways with each reading. One that brings me to tears, makes me cry no, weep, everytime I read it, despite the fact that I am familiar with the ending. An ending that concludes with "O God, please give him back! I shall keep asking You."

I red line different aspects each time I read it, but my all time favorite line among the 500+ pages is...

IF YOU CARE ABOUT SOMETHING, YOU HAVE TO PROTECT IT -- IF YOU'RE LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND A WAY OF LIFE YOU LOVE, YOU HAVE TO FIND THE COURAGE TO LIVE IT.

The story begins with one of the BEST first lines ever written;

I am doomed to remember a boy with wrecked voice--not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God; I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.

Owen Meany. It gives me pause. I always wonder when I read that sentence; Who is the reason I believe in God? I think the answer re-news itself each time I query.