After the Story - Choices Like Rivers - Episode 38
After the Story - Choices Like Rivers - Episode 38
This podcast discusses each chapter of Choices Like Rivers and each episode is posted directly after the book episode. This corresponds to Chapter 14 Section 1.
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This section opens with Will working hard on the case for Sharon. We have to remember this was a very different time. In small town America it was not looked on favorably to drink.
Even men who drank were frowned upon. As teenagers we didn’t drink, unless someone thought it would be fun to sneak a six-pack out to an old dirt road. But as a rule, we didn’t drink.
If a woman drank she was really thought poorly of. Now we would think nothing of it. In fact Sharon being a single parent would not even matter. But this was a different time. In a mere 50 years so much has changed. Some for the better and some not.
He is also blaming himself for what happened to Sharon and the baby. But is that accurate? Sharon would have still worked at the police station while pregnant. She loved that job and Bill loved having her there.
The morals clause was not an issue since they would have been married. So Sharon would have still been on that ladder when the miscarriage started. It was the miscarriage that caused her to fall and not the fall that caused it all. None of it was Will’s fault, but he blamed himself nevertheless.
One thing is for sure. He would have been there to help Sharon through it. He would have been there to comfort her and to weather the storm together.
We are all so good at self blame when it isn’t necessary and often not enough when we are actually to blame.
Will finally decides he wants to go see Sharon and meet Molly Sue. What he finds really warms his heart. He is shocked to see a blonde curly headed little girl with huge blue eyes.
He too had blond curly hair and bright blue eyes. She could have been his child. She could have been Carley Ann.
If he thought that Sharon had been exaggerating about how happy Molly Sue was, he quickly found out that she was truly a joyful child and loved life.
She had no idea what to do with an outstretched hand that Will had offered her to shake, but she grabbed it anyway and drug him away to show him all the wonders of their backyard.
Joy at its purest. Molly Sue was the embodiment of that joy. It begs us to wonder how on earth did that happen? We are beginning to see that she was born in captivity and lived in a tiny one room home with only the most simple amenities.
The amount of joy in relation to the hardship we assume her life was seems entirely out of proportion. We can only assume that Donna’s decision in the last section had everything to do with it. Her decision to make the most of a horrible situation affected Molly Sue in the most positive way.
We all need to keep that foremost in our minds. When we make a decision, when we act on something, when we say something, we are not just changing our lives. We are not just creating our world, but those around us, especially our children.
What is your children’s home life like? You may feel like the anger and aggression in your home between you and your spouse doesn’t affect them, or that they will just blow it off. But it feeds into their soul. It settles in and stays there even if the memory fades.
If we truly love our children, we will be more mindful of what world we create. Fix what is broken in your world rather than just scream and yell at it.
Go to counseling, have conversations, leave if you must, but don’t keep your children in toxic environments. If you have told yourself that you can’t, there is a way. If you have as we discussed earlier made a choice that has taken you downriver to a bad place, you can decide to change it.
Don’t let the enemy keep telling you that you are stuck, there is help out there. Don’t be afraid to reach out.
There are churches that can help. There are organizations just for people in need.
But, what if the problem is you? Well, you can change that too. Become more thankful, more forgiving. Decide to foster peace in your home instead of chaos.
Whatever the situation may be, you have a hand in making the change. Take a deep breath, garner some courage and move forward.
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