I love reading Southern fiction...
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I love reading Southern fiction and one of my favorite authors is Ferrol Sams, a Georgia physician. He has written books about the life and times of a youth named Porter Osborne and all the mischief that accompanies growing up.
In The Whisper of the River, Porter is ready to go off to college. It's his last summer at home, and his mother Vera is really annoying him. Porter feels that her sole mission in life is to irritate him by finding countless chores for him.
All summer, Porter had known that it was a time to keep his silence, just as his mother had known it was a time to keep in her heart. But now he is leaving. For his mother, Vera, leaving is a time for casting away. For the teenage boy, it's a time for speaking, cautiously. With eyes brimming, Vera prepares to let Porter go. "Oh, my son," she says. "I'm going to miss you. Walk with God and grow in grace."
It's time to go. Porter gives his mother a dutiful hug and kiss and says good-bye. Suddenly Porter is flooded with feelings of regret for being annoyed by his mother, realizing how much he does care for her. Still, there is a time to outgrow mothers, or so he thinks.
Life does have its rhythms. There are rites of passage, such as leaving home for the first time and arriving at a new place. These rhythms establish the tone of our lives. Ecclesiastes merely reminds us once more of a universal truth of life, there is a rhythm to our existence.
In The Whisper of the River, Porter is ready to go off to college. It's his last summer at home, and his mother Vera is really annoying him. Porter feels that her sole mission in life is to irritate him by finding countless chores for him.
All summer, Porter had known that it was a time to keep his silence, just as his mother had known it was a time to keep in her heart. But now he is leaving. For his mother, Vera, leaving is a time for casting away. For the teenage boy, it's a time for speaking, cautiously. With eyes brimming, Vera prepares to let Porter go. "Oh, my son," she says. "I'm going to miss you. Walk with God and grow in grace."
It's time to go. Porter gives his mother a dutiful hug and kiss and says good-bye. Suddenly Porter is flooded with feelings of regret for being annoyed by his mother, realizing how much he does care for her. Still, there is a time to outgrow mothers, or so he thinks.
Life does have its rhythms. There are rites of passage, such as leaving home for the first time and arriving at a new place. These rhythms establish the tone of our lives. Ecclesiastes merely reminds us once more of a universal truth of life, there is a rhythm to our existence.
