A Change That Can Happen

I am in a young adult literature class this spring semester, for my minor, and I love it. We have read books that I am less fond of and even quite shocked by. This past week we have read a book titled Whirligig by Paul Fleischman. This book is what you would call, post-modernist. This is one of those fancy English theory words that you hear tossed around, and unless someone is a English major or a literary freak, then you wonder if the person actually knows that they are talking about. Post-modernist is a lot of different things, but for the purpose of this post, just understand that it is a disjointed story, no straight narrative, and sometimes told from different perspectives. It also is about finding the beauty in really small things or moments, "tiny moments of meaning." This is something that I love because I feel like this is how I view the world, and how I find meaning. But what about this book is important? The thing I love about reading is seeing universal truths scattered throughout the world. Most of the books I read are not Mormon (my religion) fiction and so when I find a truth that I believe is extremely important in a book from an author who maybe has never even heard of Mormons, I get really excited, and my testimony in the truth of the gospel grows. I feel like the truths that God gave to Adam long ago are not lost to but are still fluttering around out there and people find them and decide this is important enough to write about them so they can share it with other. It confirms to me that the Light of Christ really is in everybody.

This is how I feel about Whirligig and another book titled Elsewhere. They have monumental truths that everyone needs to understand and take into their lives, and in my religious perspective I often see these as principles of the atonement.

The first book Whirligig is about a young boy who tries to take his own life but in the process kills another teenager. The boy then is asked by the other teens mother to build Whirligigs in honor of her daughter, and to make restitution. The boy goes out on this journey to build Whirligigs in all four corners of the country, Washington, California, Maine, and Florida. As he goes out to do this he finds kind caring people and finally his eyes are opened to the world. He is not so caught up in his selfish, and self-centered universe any longer. The truth that I found in this is the power of change. I know this from my personal experience how powerful this idea and truth can be. I realize that this is what the atonement is about, change. Christ knew that we would fall, but he allowed a way for us to change, to become better.  

Another truth that I found in this book was the power of other people. In the book is says: “It struck him now that the crash wasn’t only something that he’d done to her. When they’d met, he was longing to be swallowed by the blackness. She’d set him in motion, motion that he was now transferring to others.” We have a lot of influence over the people we are around and even just meet. I know that this is so true in my own life, people influence me and I have done the same. I have been set in motion by people, and I know that is something that is part of God's plan. We are on this earth to help each other, and pull others out of the blackness. I believe this is one of the most beautiful truths about our world; we are here to help one another.  

I'll take another post to explain Elsewhere so this post is so long. But I thought I'd just give a little bit of my testimony and express some of my favorite truths about the Gospel and people in general.