List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?
The Doors of Perception, Slaughterhouse-Five, Crime and Punishment. Three books. 781 pages. What I remember from each book can’t even fill the last page.
I remember that the way one ought to see is revealed in the folds and wrinkles of khaki pants worn by the great grandfathers of toddlers swaddled in blankets they would die for as tweens. Not unlike the most ragged but beautiful blanket that keeps them safe from bullets or invisible from capture by enemies or authority as adults, as the folds distract the criminal whose intent is to fall in love last. To find love at last when seeing the beauty in ourselves by separating the commitment we make to acting out our desires for the uglier side of life is equivalent to giving into hatred for ourselves. Filth, destruction and separation are in contrast to finding love in the least likely places – khakis, blankets, and Siberia are not.
Francis Erich McElroy 