Welcome to the Great Mysterious

The family did a girl's book discussion over the weekend. We chose Lorna Landvik's Welcome to the Great Mysterious for our first book. We had a great time in a small coffee shop talking about a book that was an overall fun, though relatively light read. This is the story of Geneva and Ann, Twin sisters living vastly different lives. Geneva, a broadway star. Ann a housewife living with her professor husband in Minnesota. Ann and her husband plan a trip to Italy and ask as a special favor for sister Geneva to come take care of their son, 13 year old Rich who has Down's Syndrome. Geneva has had a series of failed relationships, has just retired from the stage and is ready for a change in her life. Though she is fearful about taking care of her handicapped nephew she insists she is up for the challenges. For me, though, this book was about family and relationships. The best part of the story comes in the form of the discovery of a childhood book that the girls had made called "the Great Mysterious". In this book, written when the girls were pre teen agers the family answers a series of questions related to all those unanswerable questions: 'What is True Love?' 'What is the Meaning of Life'? 'What is faith?'
While some of the answers seemed trite to me, I loved the idea of involving the whole family and sharing with even young children what some of the secrets of life are all about. Even more, though was the sharing that we were doing as a family ourselves. A daughter and two daughters-in-law withtheir mother in law? It was better than the book in the end. But read it. Share your answers to some of the great questios.