Note all of my bookmarks…a sign of a good read!
This book is NOTHING like what I expected. What did I expect? I don’t know but I should have been warned of a few things before starting.
First I should have been warned NOT to read this book in public. There are too many times that Scott’s writing evokes either tears or laughter or both. This can be embarrassing and hard to explain when reading in public places. Second, I should have been warned that this dichotomy of emotions would start within the first 20 pages and continue for the entire book!
Because this book came in a package with a diabetes how-to book, I very much expected a book about diabetes. I was wrong. Diabetes is huge because his daughter has diabetes but diabetes is secondary to the book’s wisdom and insight. I quickly went from…what sort of diabetes peeps should read this? To…my cousin and her husband should read this because they live this same life and I bet they can relate! To…my sons should read this. To…everyone should read this.
No this isn’t a life altering book with new and shocking revelations. Its a simple book about love presented in an honest and touching way. Scott writes about his mother’s support, his love for his siblings, the relationship with his wife, and of course the developing relationship with his children from a unique perspective–that of a stay at home dad. In this day and age, stay at home moms can be the brunt of ridicule What do they really do anyway besides watch afternoon television? The stereotype for a stay at home dad is a thousand times worse. Scott breaks through all of those barriers and shows how important the roles of parents are–whether they are the ones working in the home or the ones considered the wage earners. He shows the incredible value of both partners and how vital it is that they work to compliment each other.
As I have written before, I can judge how good a book is by how many pieces of paper are torn and left as bookmarks to refer back to or how many pages are now marked with highlighter. This book sees a lot of both.
Scott’s reaction to an examination of his wife during their first prenatal visit upon finding out they were expecting their first child is both honest and hilarious…”I remember looking at Kelly and thinking, Fuck, getting her pregnant is ruining all of the fun that boobs bring to my life!” and he manages to keep this tone up for the entire book. We empathize when he drops his son or loses him in a store. We take to heart the amazing advice he provides on page 81 to “keep moving forward, ask for help when you need it, never give up, and scream at the top of your lungs once in a while, things should turn out fine almost every time. Maybe not as you pictured…but pretty damn good.”
My biggest mistake when reading this book was when I took it to my doctor’s office to read before my appointment. I was at the point when Scott and Kelly’s daughter Arden was diagnosed with diabetes. I always have a hard time with diagnosis stories. The fact that this little girl was diagnosed at 2 years old, the same age as my own son was, should have told me to keep the book in my purse and NOT read it in public but I didn’t heed the warning signs. Instead, I fought back the tears and pretended that I was there because of a cold. So much of what he wrote could have been written by me.
“She was only two. Do little kids get sick like this when they’re two?” was so similar to the feelings that I had when my son was diagnosed. It couldn’t be that serious–could it? He was so small. Scott talks about feelings of “dread, anger, shame, and more pressure to be perfect than I had ever experienced” and I knew exactly where he was coming from.
Reading, “I wish that I could tell you that it only took a few days, weeks, or months to shake the feeling that type 1 diabetes brought to me, but in all honesty, it was much longer. I didn’t begin to feel normal again for two years, and the interim was overflowing with new, frightening and potentially defeating daily situations.” Fit perfectly with the advice I had recently given people at a webinar.
Is this the book to read if you want to learn how to cope with life with diabetes? Perhaps it isn’t. Diabetes is not the focus of this book, living life is! Scott’s open and frank discussion about life, love and making the most of every memory is advice of value to all of us. This book should be read by everyone who loves to laugh and values their family. His unique perspective and wonderful humor made this book a pure pleasure to read and a book that must be shared with everyone in your life–young or older.
No comments:
Post a Comment