Joy of Reading - Left Neglected
We kiss good-bye. It’s our typical morning good-bye kiss. A quick peck. A well-intentioned habit. I look down and notice Lucy’s round, blue eyes paying close attention. I flash to studying my own parents kissing when I was little. They kissed each other hello and good-bye and good night like I would have kissed one of my aunts, and it terribly disappointed me. There was no drama to it at all. I promised myself that when I got married some day, I would have kisses that meant something. Kisses that would make me weak in the knees. Kisses that would embarrass the kids. Kisses like Han Solo kissing Princess Leia. I never saw my father kiss my mother like that. What was the point of it? I never got it. Now I get it. We aren’t living in some George Lucas blockbuster adventure. Our morning kiss good-bye isn’t romantic, and it certainly isn’t sexual. It’s a routine kiss, but I’m glad we do it. It does mean something. It’s enough.
5 comments:
It's been almost a year since I read this marvelous book. I included this quote in my review. Love it! I hope you're enjoying the book.
I will read this book!
You know, I think kids don't really like to see their parents kissing in anything but a perfunctory way, especially after they reach the age of 'romance' themselves. :<)
Les~We both picked out a somewhat similar kiss passage from another book--Entering Normal maybe? I have a note in the book notes to find that other kiss passage. One of these days....
Nan~Did you read Still Alice? While I was very much taken by Left Neglected, Alice was a much more emotional read for me.
I think it was Step.Ball.Change by Jeanne Ray.
Yes! Step.Ball.Change. The Entering Normal quote was about comments made at funerals (pretty far removed from kissing, eh?)--"He was such a wonderful man" and all the silent, in her mind, rebuttals the main character had to that remark. Lordy, I need to find that reading notebook and get my quotes straightened out!
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