TOW #24 - Letters to Sam

Since it's my last TOW, I figured I should talk about my last IRB. I recently finished Letters to Sam by Daniel Gottlieb, a story about a paraplegic grandfather giving a lifetime of advice to his autistic grandson. Gottlieb wrote the book because he knew he wouldn't be around for all of his grandson's childhood, so he figured leaving behind a physical copy of all the advice he would ever give him was the best possible choice. Personally, I really enjoyed reading this story, and I'm glad that I didn't gloss over it like I have done so many times before. It is filled with inspiring words of wisdom and mantras, one of my favorites being the grandfather's lessons about pain. (This 'lesson' really hit home for me.) He writes, "All pain is about longing for yesterday--whatever we had before, whatever we used to be." Upon reading this I didn't understand at first, but when you think about it it really makes sense. Longing for something we can never get back will only bring us pain. I took it as Gottlieb's way of saying to live for now and look ahead. This junior year of mine started off with life changes great in size and number, and I had trouble (I still am) not getting caught up in thinking about how things used to be. This is the biggest reason why I was so happy to read this book; it gave me a helpful reminder that we can't change what has already happened, only what will.