Things Become Other Things

I picked up this book wondering, "What could I possibly have in common with a white guy living, walking, and writing in desolate corners of Japan? What about this book and story will resonate with me?" But just a few pages in, things became other things and I walked alongside Craig, listening to a story about two boys growing up in post-industrial America, a land of shattered dreams and missed opportunities. I cried through someone else's yearning for belonging – in family, place, and friendship, revisiting people and parts of my own experience I had forgotten. "Walking memoir" doesn't do this beautiful book justice. It is really about the inner roads we all travel to find peace with how life, places, and relationships have jostled us around, have betrayed and enriched us, and how deep presence allows us to make sense of it all.