👶👶👶👶👶 This Is How It Always Is, by Laurie Frankel

You know the books that give you a full understanding of something you could never quite grasp before? The ones that unravel a complicated matter, and lay it before you in such a way that your eyes are opened to new ways of seeing things? Well, this is one such book for me. Laurie Frankel wowed me with her thoughtful, beautifully-rendered novel about Claude, the youngest of 5 brothers who expresses from a young age that he wants to be a girl. Frankel opened my eyes and allowed me to consider a situation so far out of my experience, that it seemed inconsequential. From my limited perspective, I judged and perhaps even condemned something I knew so little about.

That, to me, is the joy of books. They open the world to us from the comfort of our very own homes. Where would we be without the authors that tell these important stories?

I am better for having read this novel, because it gave me more empathy; it challenged my preconceived notions; it made me recognize my judgmental nature. The characters were so real, so raw, so powerful. Not only was Poppy compelling, but her parents handled the entire situation so well.

It's a difficult thing, sometimes, to accept situations outside our norm. But personally, I think it's so important to, at the very least, try to understand where others are coming from. I've said before, I strongly believe that we weren't put on this earth to judge others. So the only way to avoid doing so is to listen and learn from one another or to just pick up a good book and inform ourselves.

"This is how it always is. You have to make these huge decisions on behalf of your kid, this tiny human whose fate and future is entirely in your hands. Who trusts you to know what's good and right and then to be able to make that happen. You never have enough information. You don't get to see the future. And if you screw up - if with your incomplete, contradictory information you make the wrong call - nothing less than your child's entire future and happiness is at stake. It's impossible. It's heartbreaking. It's maddening.But there's no alternative."

Read 10/17/20