- "I heard that when white folks go fishin they do somethin called 'catch and release.'"...."That really bothers me," Denver went on. "I just can't figure it out. 'Cause wehn colored folks go fishin, we really proud of what we catch, and we take it and show it off to everybody that'll look. Then we eat what we catch...in other words, we use it to sustain us. So it really bothers me that white folks would go to all that trouble to catch a fish, then when they done caught it, just throw it back in the water." He paused again, and the silence between us stretched a full minute. Then: "Did you hear what I said?" I nodded, afraid to speak, afraid to offend. Denver looked away, searching the blue autumn sky, then locked onto me again with that drill-bit stare. "So, Mr. Rob, it occurred to me: If you is fishin for a friend you jus gon' catch and release, then I ain't got no desire to be your friend." ..... Suddenly his eyes gentled and he spoke more softly than before: "But if you is lookin for a REAL friend, then I"ll be one. Forever." --pg 107
- "Denver smiled a bit and sidled up to a cautious question. "I know it ain't none of my business, but does you own somethin that each one of them key fits?" I glanced at the keys; there were about ten of them. "I suppose," I replied, not really ever having thought about it. "Are you sure you own them, or does they own you?"--pg 112-113
- "I asked him if he'd seen Denver that day. "He's probably sleeping," he said. "Sleeping!" I blurted. Lazy, I thought. It was already midafternoon. Jim raised an eyebrow. "You don't know?" "Know what?" "Well, when Denver heard about Miss Debbie, he told me she had a lot of friends that would be praying for her all day. But he figured she needed someone to pray all night, and he would be the one to do it." My eyes widened as he went on. "So he goes outside at midnight, sits down next to the Dumptster, and prays for Miss Debbie and your family. When I get up and come down here at three in the morning to get breakfast going, he comes in for a cup of coffee and we pray here in the kitchen for her until about four. Then he goes back outside and prays till sunup." Ashamed, I realized again how deep grew the roots of my own prejudice, of my arrogant snap judgments of the poor."--pg 138
- "I know you is hurtin and questionin God," I told him. "I'm hurtin, too. And you is probably wonderin why a saint like Miss Debbie is in that room sufferin when all them street bums she ministered to seem to be gettin along just fine. well, let me tell you somethin: God calls some good ones like MIss Debbie home so He can accomplish His purposes down here on the earth." Mr. Ron just stared at me. That's when I noticed his eyes was all read and swoll up. His throat was just a-workin, like he was fixin to break down on me, but I went right on anyway, 'cause I felt like if I didn't, he was gon' turn his back on God. "I ain't sayin God can't use the bums and the addicts to work His will down here--He's God, and He can sure 'nough do anything He wants. I'm just tellin you He sometimes needs to call the good ones home to bring glory to His name. And I can tell you something else-- I don't care what no doctors say, Miss Debbie ain't goin nowhere till she finished the work here on earth that God gave her to do. You can take THAT to the bank."--pg 170
- "But I found out everybody's different--the same kind of different as me. We're all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us. The truth about it is, whether we is rich or poor or somethin in between, this earth ain't no final restin place. SO in a way, we is all homeless--just workin our way toward home."--pg 235
may 30 2010 ∞
may 31 2010 +
may 31 2010 +