This morning I started reading the new Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, The Long Way Home by Louise Penny.  Have I mentioned that I love these books?  They are beautifully written, engaging mysteries which also manage to be adept looks at the inner workings of the human soul.  Already in the first five pages I found two quotes I liked:

“But he’d come to agree with Sister Prejean that no one was as bad as the worst thing they’d done.  Armand Gamache had seen the worst. But he’d also seen the best.  Often in the same person.”

I think it is easy to feel we can really know people “by their fruits” so to speak, when in actuality what we see in people–how they appear or what they do in a moment will never give us the full measure of who they are.  I don’t think we can really presume to judge anyone else solely based on our own observations, and at the same time find comfort in the thought that I, personally, am not solely defined the worst things I have done.

Here’s the other quote I liked:

“Turmoil shook loose all sorts of unpleasant truths.  But it took peace to examine them.”

I thought this was an insightful reminder that trying to make sense of the chaos in our lives while in the midst of it is rarely productive.  Sometimes understanding takes time and distance.

Good thoughts for me today.  I can’t promise there won’t be more from this book when I’ve read the other 370 pages… Til next week!