Old Books New Lessons



Old books can help you see today with new eyes.

Part of what I have enjoyed about my old books, is that I can see characters go through difficult times, but have confidence that in the end, all will be well.  A favorite author is Grace Livingston Hill.  She wrote at the beginning of the 20^th century, and her stories were mostly centered in the Pennsylvania and New York area, with a few excursions to the shore

I enjoy her books so much that I have collected nearly all of them.  The ones I don’t have seem to be so totally out of print that even major searches don’t uncover copies.  Her key premise comes from her very strong Christian faith.  That in itself might seem to remove her from my favorite list, as, while I was raised in a home where the church was a Christian one, I have never carried high the banner of Christianity.  I respect the spiritual aspects, while not being comfortable with the dogma of most organized religions.  What I have found in her writings is a sense of principles that transcend most organized religions and reach a spiritual level with which I can identify.

I have to admit that all of her stories end happily.  The boy meets the girl and while there are many tribulations, they eventually find each other and fall in love.  But there are other aspects of her writings that also appeal to me on a much deeper level.   She tells stories about renewal that somehow strike a chord with me. 

 Many of her books were written in the years just before, during and after the great depression of the 1930’s.  There’s something quaint and frankly comforting for me to read about a time that one could live on $5 a week.  It was a time when grocery stores were a new invention and working in one was a “come down” for a man or woman who had been raised on Park Avenue in New York.  But because the bank closed its doors and “failed” the woman or man with the silver spoon had to go to work.  It was in many ways a simpler time, but one that we might learn from even, or maybe especially today.

One of my favorites was about a young woman who had to go to the big city, (Philadelphia) take a job in a department store and live in a boarding house.  The boarding house described in the book was horrible.  It was a dirty place, providing poor food badly cooked, (that's the boarding part of the house) and was depressing for all of the inhabitants. 

 Miraculously, (I say that because it’s a Christian book after all, so it wasn’t a magical thing but the hand of God and I am not making fun here,) the young woman was left money by an uncle she didn’t know she had.  That "fortune" of $5000 enabled her to bring her dear aunt to Philadelphia and buy the boarding house and transform it into a wonderful, clean and spiritual home for the people who lived there. 

 I love that kind of story…taking what is ugly and dirty and making it beautiful and nice again (remember my deck?  I’m still working on it.)  She has several books with this kind of a story line and I love them all...I even reread them on occasion.  

What’s Zen got to do with this?  Buddhism is less of a religion than a philosophical way of living life.  One of the challenges that organized religion poses for me is the sense that one must believe in their way as the only way.   Whether it’s about getting to heaven or living “right,” it needs to be done through the lens of that particular religion.  In Buddhism, there are principles to live by that do no violence to any organized religion.  Buddhism can be embraced along with other spiritual traditions and neither is damaged.

I can appreciate the Christian tradition of Grace Livingston Hill and the kind of living and choices that her faith demanded of its followers.  I can respect how it helped her in her life and writing and my own soul resonates with many of the beliefs.  My faith in Buddhism is not damaged by my appreciation of her Christianity.  I wonder if she were here in this time, if she could feel that same kinship?

 I like to think that she could.