Over the weekend I read a book called The Five People You Meet In Heaven. It's short, simple, sweet, profound and I bawled like a child when I was done. I was a complete mess. I have never cried that much over a book before (the closest thing to it would be my second reading of OotP, which a very frustrating read full of bitter, bitter tears lol).

( The Plot as related by Amazon.com )

This book got to me in all the right places. There's a quote on the back of the book from a review, something like "this is the book you'll turn to when you're in love, the fable you'll keep by you when you are lost..." and it's absolutely true. This book is more than a book, it's a lesson in itself, something that gives you a new way to look at life, a new way to look at people. To explain why I cried so much is not something I think I could explain, but it probably has something to do with just how much I identified with Eddie, despite the age and the gender difference. It's a very specific story of one man's life, but in many ways its essence is universal. "The world is full of stories, but the stories are all one" -- a pivotal quote straight from the book.

The central theme of the book, as I understand it, is lessons. Lessons we should have learned in life, and lessons that we finally appreciate in death. I think this book taught me a very valuable lesson. One that we all know, but often fail to follow through with:

That is the lesson to appreciate life -- not just your life and not just the lives that you know, but the lives of the past, the lives of the present, and the lives of the future. It's chaos theory with a decidedly parabolic twist -- recognizing that seemingly inconsequential choices and lives can have an immeasurable effect on the world at large. The book ends on this note and then stays with you, which is probably why I'm stuck writing this reactionary passage two days after I've finished.

I want everyone to read this book -- to laugh and to cry and to learn and to love. It may be short and simple, but it is valuable. Who knows, maybe I'll give this book to a few people and change the course of their lives forever. Or just maybe, if I'm canonical about it, I'll put them on the course they were meant to be on.