Same Kind oFDifferent As Me

I read a lot of books and I watch a lot of movies, but for whatever reason I retain very little of what I take in. As I scan my bookshelf there are 5 or so books on there that I know I have read because I remember the covers. What I don’t remember are any of the characters, the places and for most of them I can’t even recall a basic plot line. It’s the same way for movies. I may recognize a title, and I might not, but I definitely forget characters, actors, scenes and storylines. I am usually only able to hang onto these basic parts of books or movies for about a week or until I start on my next book or movie.

Sometimes though, I come across a very special book or movie that I know will stick with me long after I finish turning the pages. Last week I finished up “Same Kind of Different As Me,” by Ron Hall and Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent. I bought this book for $.50 at a thrift store last year and for whatever reason didn’t pick it up until last week. Okay I may believe there was divine intervention in this little coincidence because had I read it last year it probably would have drifted out of my memory a mere week after I read it like so many great books before it. Amidst the Buy Nothing New for a Year Challenge however this serendipitous book could not have spoken to my heart more clearly or loudly.

The book is braided together, alternating autobiographies of a poor black sharecropper, Denver, who works on a “modern” plantation in Louisiana and Ron Hall, a well-to-do art dealer in Fort Worth, Texas. After Denver escapes from Louisiana he finds himself at a Fort Worth mission where his path crosses with Ron Hall for the first time and the two become unlikely friends bound together by the love the radiates from Ron’s wife Debbie, the book’s hero. Over coffee one day,

“Denver smiled a bit and sidled up to a cautious question. ‘I know it ain’t none of my business, but does you own something that each one of them keys fits?’

I glanced at the keys; there were about ten of them. ‘I suppose,’ I replied, not really ever having thought about it.

‘Are you sure you own them, or does they own you?’

That wisdom stuck to my brain like duct tape. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced we’d enjoy life a whole lot more if we owned a whole lot less.” (Hall, 112-113)

After I read that passage I started the book over and really paid attention to everything. I knew this would be a book I didn’t want to forget. These two unlikely friends, who formed a fierce friendship deeply rooted in faith and loyalty, are an example of how if you give someone a bit of yourself you may end up with a lifetime of wealth. The two men continually learn from one another and from the unconditional love that Debbie shows, though in the end I believe it’s the affluent Ron Hall with much more to learn from the illiterate Denver who has spent a lifetime finding the bright side of things that have broken weaker men.

I recommend this book for all. It is heart-wrenching, yet uplifting and through it Deborah Hall’s wish comes true and her legacy lives on. For my local friends, I already checked, OCPL has a copy and if you wish to borrow my copy that’s fine too, but this is one book that I want back J

Patrick loves his sisters!

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that^[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.