As time goes on, those who give themselves to their possessions become more and more consumed by them. When life is lived this way, eventually everything will collapse. And if “pills” is a far-off concept for you, simply replace it with whatever remedy you see people turn to-or find yourself turning to-to help you switch off and to help you switch on. They far too often need pills to get themselves to sleep, pills to wake themselves up, pills to get themselves through the day. Workaholics awaken in the night and turn over in their bed.

But Solomon warns that when work is the totality of your life, all of your “days are full of sorrow,” and “even in the night” your “heart does not rest” (Ecclesiastes 2:23). Work comes from God, so it must be good-but only when pursued rightly. This is not to say that work is irrelevant or unhelpful. Scripture’s conclusion about a life devoted to labor for its own sake is clear: it’s all meaningless and a striving after the wind. On further probing, it has turned out that by this they have meant that everything would be better if their child would simply give their lives completely to their work. Each of these mothers and fathers have been disappointed in their son’s or daughter’s choices, and as we have talked it has become clear that their disappointment is grounded in their belief that everything would be much better if their child would just be like them. The whole Vandever family is fun to spend time with.Over the years, I’ve sat with many parents who were distraught over the potential consequences of their children’s wrongful pursuits. The grandmother is my favorite character by a mile. I liked this better than the first one though I also think it's more overwrought. It almost feels like there is a real family history which Johnston mined more than once, and the plot points in common may be from there. The most striking one for me was the baby born in the blizzard, helped into the world by the dowager who disapproves. 'It's not your fault, my love.'Īs with the other book featuring the Vandevers, it struck me that there was a lot held in common with The Keeping Days. Anytime I start reading Thackery and Dickens.' Celia took a deep breath. When I do an intensive study of an artist's work, I always find myself for a few weeks painting in his style.' We've all done it, unconscious plagiarism.

Without knowing it, you picked up patterning of sentences.

You listened to Celia read her columns aloud as she finished them, didn't you? We all did. And it's not the story, but the structure. An interesting passage from this book, especially in light of the allegations of Johnston 'borrowing' from MHL:

A Striving After Wind by Norma Johnston