A Book.

A blessed companion is a book, - a book that, fitly chosen, is a lifelong friend,... a book that, at a touch, pours its heart into our own.  ~Douglas Jerrold

A book is a dangerous thing.  Some see it as a waste of time....Some see it a large stack of paper with black letters painted across the pages..... yet some.... see a book for what it truly is.  A book  is a dangerous thing.  When a person opens its pages, and truly begin to immerse themselves in its world....they are lost.  Because once they finally emerge from its adventure.... they are not who they once were.  Their mind has soaked in its ideas, and without giving permition, they have been transformed into a new being.  A book is a dangerous thing.... because one book, could change EVERYTHING.

I just finished reading The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton) for my English class.  Let me just say, that this book has really changed me.  This book adresses cliques and gangs, and how harmful they really are.  On the pages of this book, are the words I hear in the back of my mind when I see the split between the "popular" kids and the "outcasts".  I see how they treat each other and all at once.... I become furious, disgusted..... and my heart breaks.  "Just don't forget that some of us watch the sunset too" - Ponyboy (The Outsiders).  What he means when he is saying this is:  Right now, all we see is outward appearance.... or money.... or social status.... but at the end of the day, how much of that matters?  We are all human beings.  We feel happiness.... sorrow.  We all laugh and we cry.  All of us have our individual worries, and fears.  The problem occurs when we let our own struggles cloud our vision and our hearts.... and when we let our own issues mask the problems of others. 

In the book,  There is a poem.  (sorry I am not sure who it is by...):

"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay."

"Nothing gold can stay."  What does this mean?  Well in the words of Johnny Cade (The Outsiders), "I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green.  When you're a kid everything's new, dawn.  Its just when you get used to everything that is day."

That is so right!  We accept things the way they are.... teasing, bullying, everything,..... because we are so used to it.  We are no longer golden children who have never been made to feel "not good enough".  We have all felt that way.... and we have all brought those feelings upon another.  Well I am truly sick of it.  Johnny's last words were "Stay gold." and I think he is right.  We can't accept these things anymore.  We will have to take risks, and get hurt.... all for the chance that things could be "gold" again.  All because its worth it. 

" I could picture hundreds and hundreds of boys living on the wrong sides of cities, boys with black eyes who jumped at their own shadows.  Hundreds of boys who maybe watched sunsets and looked at stars and ached for something better.  I could see boys going down under street lights because they were mean and tough and hated the world, and it was too late to tell them that there was still good in it, and they wouldn't believe you if you did.  It was too vast a problem to be just a personal thing.  There should be some help, someone should tell them before it was too late..."  - Ponyboy Curtis (The Outsiders)

So yes.  This book has changed me.  I hope you will read it and let it pour itself into your heart.  But most of all... I hope you will "stay gold."