Social Barometer

     As I listened to "Sister Carrie" on my iPod as I ride my trike each morning, I began to realize it was an extraordinary novel. Amy gets them from the library and puts them on my iPod. I listen to everything she puts on and generally like them. The previous book had been interesting but this one seemed a cut above. I thought of Thomas Hardy or Charles Dickens. Or Tolstoy. I see lots of parallels with Anna Karenina.
     In one chapter, I heard a quote that struck a chord with me. I didn't stop to see where it was and I couldn't find it the next day. I checked Google to see if by some miracle I could find the quote. I had never heard of the author (I thought). Imagine my surprise when I learned:
     Sister Carrie (1900) is a novel by Theodore Dreiser about a young country girl who moves to the big city where she starts realizing her own American Dream, first as a mistress to men that she perceives as superior, and later becoming a famous actress. It has been called the  "greatest of all American urban novels."
     I almost quit listening to it when I was fearful Carrie would get into trouble in a new big city like I quit reading The American Tragedy because I couldn't stand for an innocent boy to be brought to destruction and death. Guess what? It was written by Theodore Dreiser too. In 2005, the book was placed on Time Magazine's list of the top 100 novels written in English since 1923.
     The quote I spent two days looking for was, simply:

     "Our social barometers always stand as 'cloudy and overcast'."

     It struck a chord with me because I realized that's been our reading in every ward we've ever lived in. "Cloudy and Overcast."  Partly because of our unique circumstances (first not having children, then adoption, then a child with special needs); mainly, because that's the way we are.

When I was in school, from mid-grade school on,

when Daddy was accidentally killed,

my brothers, sisters, and I 

were the only kids in school without a dad.

Today, that wouldn't be noticed

but in our small town, 

nearly 70 years ago,

it set us apart.