Walk Two Moons

Thirteen-year-old Sal is traveling from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents in search of her mother, who left and has not returned. Along the way, Sal tells the story of her friend Phoebe who's life mirrors her own. Beautifully written. The characters were universal- we all have had a best friend who is a little neurotic and paranoid; quirky grandparents; and fathers who don't express emotion well. I loved following Sal on her journey towards peace.

When Phoebe's mother disappears, Sal and Phoebe fear the worst: a potential lunatic kidnapping and a murderous next door neighbor. At the end of her journey Sal understands why she and Phoebe concocted worst case scenario versions of reality.

“It seem to me that we can't explain all the truly awful things in the world like war and murder and brain tumors, and we can't fix these things, so we look at the frightening things that are closer to us and we magnify them until they burst open.” (Creech, 277)

I can drive myself crazy about something small because it is easier to stress about than the really big issue. I tell myself I am angry because my kids are running around screaming. Not true. Is their behavior annoying? YES! Is their behavior appropriate? Probably not. Is their behavior the cause of my anger. No!

Anger is the emotion I allow myself to feel when I am overwhelmed with the world around me. I feel overwhelmed and out-of-control of myself. The need to control spills onto my children; I must control them. When I am unable to control them (I know internally that I can't) and I remember that controlling their behavior is not the plan anyway-- teach correct principles and help them choose the right-- I feel like exploding. There is too much stimulus internally and externally. I erupt, “STOP BEING SO SILLY!!!”

It is immensely easier to be upset about loud children than learning self-mastery. Louis L'amour said, “To destroy is easy, to build is hard. To scoff is also easy, but to go on in the face of scoffing and do what is right is the way of a man.” “We must do what we think we cannot,” Eleanor Roosevelt.

Sal decided that “bravery is looking Pandora's box full in the eye as best you can, and then turning to the other box,” the one with all the wonderful and pleasing things in life (Creech, 277). With a sure knowledge of all the terrible, we can fully appreciate and treasure the “smoothbeautiful” things of life.

Walk Two Moons, Sharon Creech, HarperCollins Children's Books, 1994