tonight's pasttime of choice

While we were on our trip to Northern Idaho last month, we went into Barnes and Noble and splurged on some new reading material. Among others, Dave chose Malcolm Gladwell's new book Outliers and I chose the classic book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. (Dave and I both enjoy reading, but we choose to read very different books.) We both finished reading them tonight. I will say that Dave thoroughly enjoyed his book, which is a book about what makes successful people different from the rest of us normal people, both in their environment/opportunities and their habits and behaviors. I'll let him go into it more, if he so chooses.

I read (or was supposed to have read, or read half of) The Scarlet Letter in high school. I didn't remember a single thing from it, other than the actual scarlet letter itself. It was mostly narrative, it challenged my reading comprehension, and I really enjoyed it. It made me think about sin and how we view others. In the concluding chapter the author states, "in the view of Infinite Purity, we are all sinners alike." While reading this statement, I remember a conversation I had in college with a friend about sin. We were discussing the scripture, "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). It was the first time I really understood that verse. The Scarlet Letter shows how we view others when we know the mistakes they have made and how we scorn people for their "sins" and love others who have hidden these same sins from view. But even the most righteous among us will come up wanting in the end. We cannot hide our mistakes and those that try live in greater anguish than those who admit their mistakes, learn from them, and move on.