One thing I'm interested in is what shapes us: the people? The place where we live? It's both of those and more. That's what I keep coming back to.
Sharon CreechBeing a mother is like trying to hold a wolf by the ears,โ Gram said. โIf you have three or four โor more โ chickabiddies, youโre dancing on a hot griddle all the time. You donโt have time to think about anything else. And if youโve only got one or two, itโs almost harder. You have room left over โ empty spaces that you think youโve got to fill up.
Sharon CreechI once fell 20 feet from a tree, was knocked unconscious, and when I picked myself up and straggled home, my parents thought I was making it up. However, when my brother and I fabricated a story about an encounter with a bear, they believed that! So maybe I learned very early on that fiction was more interesting to listeners!
Sharon CreechOn that night after Phoebe had given her Pandora report, I thought about the Hope in Pandora's box. Maybe when everything seemed sad and miserable, Phoebe and I could both hope that something might start to go right.
Sharon CreechIt seems to me that we canโt explain all the truly awful things in the world like war and murder and brain tumors, and we canโt fix these things, so we look at the frightening things that are closer to us and we magnify them until they burst open. Inside is something that we can manage, something that isnโt as awful as it had a first seemed. It is a relief to discover that although there might be axe murderers and kidnappers in the world, most people seem a lot like us: sometimes afraid and sometimes brave, sometimes cruel and sometimes kind.
Sharon CreechI wondered about Mrs. Winterbottom and what she meant about living a tiny life. If she didn't like all that baking and cleaning and jumping up to get bottles of nail polish remover and sewing hems, why did she do it? Why didn't she tell them to do some of the things themselves? Maybe she was afraid there would be nothing left for her to do. There would be no need for her and she would become invisible and no one would notice.
Sharon Creech