What Fun Would That Be?

My book club just finished reading Joy for Beginners by Erica Bauermeister. Based on the name and the cover on the paperback edition, I wasn’t excited about reading it, thinking it was going to be a very predictable happy ending kind of book.  In fact, right on the cover was a quote from author Garth Stein: “Moving, touching, wonderfully written, inspiring to read.”  Need I say more?

But I am the leader of the book club and two days before our meeting I bought the book and began reading. I was right, it was predictable but there were three ideas in that book that I wrote down and keep thinking about.  So I guess you can’t always tell a book by its cover.

“My husband said he didn’t want to be married to Robin’s mother anymore.” To learn more about that mouth full,  read onThe book is about six women who had been friends for many years. One of the women, Kate, had recently recovered from cancer.  Book begins with all six having dinner to celebrate her good fortune.  They challenge her to do something she has been afraid to do – go whitewater rafting.  She accepts the challenge on the condition that they will each accept a challenge from her.  Each of the six women has a chapter about her life and her challenge.

Caroline’s husband was the man who made that statement as he went out the door.  She didn’t see it coming.  That makes one wonder, “Would I?”

In another chapter Sara’s husband gives her a camera and tells her to take a picture of a smell, a touch, a taste and a sound.  How would I do that?  I guess a picture of a beautiful dish of spaghetti and meatballs could be a picture of a taste. But what about a touch or sound?

But my favorite is, “Adults need to have fun so children will want to grow up.” This was also in Sara’s chapter.  Her father was a teacher so their life was divided between school year and summer.  As soon as school was out he “dove into the garage like the first kid in the pool on Memorial Day” where he would cut and weld until August when he would go on an excursion.

When Sara and he brother were eight, their father asked if they wanted to help him and they were allowed in the garage for the first time.  He explained that they were “building an entry for a kinetic sculpture race” in which each “human powered machine competed not only for the aesthetics of its design and decoration…but for its durability and speed in a course that included road, water, mud and sand.”  Their father explained the balance between sturdiness, which slowed it down, and sleekness. Too slim a design didn’t have the strength to stay the course.

One day Sara asked her father if a man, “without the trappings of metal and wood, giant fake flowers or paper mache animal heads”, might be more effective and more likely to win the contest.  Her father’s reply?  “Well yes…but what would be the fun in that?”

Just my kind of man!  Seems to me that father found the perfect way to have a heck of a good time while teaching his children principles of physics and engineering.

Oh, by the way, the motto of the race was, “Adults need to have fun so children will want to grow up.”