1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:18,600 Alright, so to start this off, I'm going to read to you from the internet. 2 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:27,520 Yes, the whole internet, what people say generally about the middle grade book, Bridge to Terabithia. 3 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:28,520 So here we go. 4 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:32,240 The novel was originally published in 1977 by Thomas Crowell. 5 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:36,600 I guess Thomas Crowell is a publisher of sorts because that is not the name of the author. 6 00:00:36,600 --> 00:00:41,920 The author is a lady and her name is not Tom, or Thomas, or Tommy. 7 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:48,040 Let's see, in 1978, the next year, one year later, or in the next calendar year, it won 8 00:00:48,040 --> 00:00:50,720 the prestigious Newbery Medal. 9 00:00:50,720 --> 00:00:55,480 I believe both Chuck Everlasting, oh no, I believe Chuck Everlasting won the Newbery 10 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:59,920 Medal and I said, what are the criteria for the Newbery Medal if this book won it? 11 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:04,960 Because, spoilers for that episode, Fortress Fiction, I did not like Chuck Everlasting, 12 00:01:04,960 --> 00:01:08,840 but this is a contemporary, yeah, this is a contemporary of Chuck Everlasting, came 13 00:01:08,840 --> 00:01:11,000 out two years later than it. 14 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:14,400 And I like it a lot and I can understand why it won the Newbery Medal even though I don't 15 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:15,400 know what the criteria are. 16 00:01:15,400 --> 00:01:19,160 I understand it, but I'll get into that a little bit more later. 17 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:22,000 Let's see, I don't want to tell you about the inspiration, but you can look into that 18 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:23,000 on your own. 19 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:28,560 It's very interesting, it's neat, and gosh, that's all they really say about it. 20 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:29,560 That kind of stinks. 21 00:01:29,560 --> 00:01:31,920 So yeah, internet, you're letting me down here. 22 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:32,920 You're letting me down. 23 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:38,280 But I'll go ahead and tell you, dear folks of the internet, what I think about this book. 24 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:42,840 So if you can't tell, spoilers, I thought it was really good. 25 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:43,840 I liked it a lot. 26 00:01:43,840 --> 00:01:44,840 I thought it was fantastic. 27 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:52,040 I'm going to just dive into it as I want to do on Fortress Fiction and in any sort of 28 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:53,720 book chat that I do. 29 00:01:53,720 --> 00:01:57,080 And I'm going to be honest, I'm not going to really be critical of this book because 30 00:01:57,080 --> 00:01:59,680 I don't know what to be critical over. 31 00:01:59,680 --> 00:02:03,080 I think it is a very competently written book. 32 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:05,520 I think it's age appropriate for anybody. 33 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:09,640 I heard in an interview with the author that I listened to afterwards that it is sometimes 34 00:02:09,640 --> 00:02:14,920 a banned book because it deals with, again, this is major spoilers, and I didn't say any 35 00:02:14,920 --> 00:02:15,920 spoilers yet for the book. 36 00:02:15,920 --> 00:02:20,400 But unfortunately, when you look it up, it automatically, like, within the top results 37 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:21,400 are the spoilers for it. 38 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:23,800 And yes, I know the book was from 1975. 39 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:28,520 It's younger than my parents, but it's not much younger than my parents. 40 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:33,840 So like anyway, it's a little crazy to me that you would just spoil the book outright. 41 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:40,000 Instead, you could do something in order to share information about the book. 42 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,960 You talk about the power of imagination and the friendship and the bond between the two 43 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:46,160 kids in it that is central to the story. 44 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:52,880 That's a lot of what the story is about, something huge and, you know, crazy, mysterious, ugly, 45 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:54,960 I was going to say, but that's not quite the right word. 46 00:02:54,960 --> 00:03:01,160 Something dramatic happens towards the end of the book, and it might be exactly what 47 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:05,360 turned it into the classic that it is, because I don't know how else you were going to end 48 00:03:05,360 --> 00:03:06,360 the story. 49 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:07,720 But I don't want to go into that yet. 50 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,160 I'm going to wait a little while longer, even though I'm hoping that you've already read 51 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:12,760 Bridgette Arrbithia if you're listening to this. 52 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:16,840 And if you haven't, don't go away, because I'll let you know when the spoiler is coming 53 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:19,080 and you can run away at that point. 54 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:21,240 So I'll go back real quick. 55 00:03:21,240 --> 00:03:24,560 I think this book is very competently written. 56 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:28,520 I was going to say beautifully, but I hesitated as you heard there for a few moments because 57 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:35,880 I don't know that the prose is beautiful because it doesn't try to be flowery. 58 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:39,560 But the things that it describes are beautiful. 59 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:44,360 So I guess I'll do a little bit of a summary or just like I'll introduce you to the world 60 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:45,800 of the Bridge of Bridgette Arrbithia. 61 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,480 And honestly, I know the girl's name is Leslie and the boy is Jess or Jesse. 62 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:50,480 I think it's Jesse. 63 00:03:50,480 --> 00:03:52,160 I think it's his actual name. 64 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:56,640 He's Jesse Aaron something or other anyway, or Jesse something errands because he gets 65 00:03:56,640 --> 00:04:01,000 called by that the middle name when he's in trouble getting scolded as people are wanting 66 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:02,000 to do with kids. 67 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:06,080 So anyway, and of course, I mean, you know, even kids with other kids, I'm sure that his 68 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,280 sisters have picked up scolding him from his mom. 69 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:15,200 Anyway, so first of all, or I guess one more thing, I got this from Cloud Library. 70 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:17,560 I really like the edition I got from Cloud Library. 71 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:21,320 I don't it's HarperCollins Audio was the the production I listened to. 72 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:25,920 I don't know if the HarperCollins Audio version is on Audible as well, but I do know that 73 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:31,720 there is a version of the audiobook on Audible, which I will try to share that information 74 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:32,720 when I can. 75 00:04:32,720 --> 00:04:34,960 So if you wanted to listen to this for free, you could or if you wanted to go ahead and 76 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:36,720 buy it, you could. 77 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:37,720 It's a good book. 78 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:38,720 It's definitely a recommend. 79 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:43,360 I think I'll read or listen to again and I'll definitely tell my kids to read it. 80 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:46,160 I've already told my daughter, actually, my eldest to read it. 81 00:04:46,160 --> 00:04:48,320 And I wouldn't mind owning a copy of this. 82 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:49,320 It's a really good book. 83 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:54,120 So anyway, to give you some context, it's about a boy and a girl who know they don't 84 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:55,120 fall in love. 85 00:04:55,120 --> 00:04:56,120 It's not one of those weird books. 86 00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:00,040 It's about a boy and a girl who are kids growing up in the South in the 1970s. 87 00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:03,700 At some point, we don't exactly know when it's post Vietnam War, but it's very possible 88 00:05:03,700 --> 00:05:06,320 that women are still wearing bell bottoms. 89 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,200 They're definitely wearing tight jeans, which is mentioned. 90 00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:12,360 And I'll get back to that later. 91 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:17,600 But yeah, the boy is one of six, I believe. 92 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:19,920 So I think he's got five sisters total. 93 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:21,560 There's a baby. 94 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:23,440 There's the sister younger than him. 95 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:24,960 Maybe there's five total kids. 96 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:25,960 Then there's his two older sisters. 97 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,300 Gosh, I thought they were like his two older nasty sisters. 98 00:05:29,300 --> 00:05:31,120 And then there was one older sweet sister. 99 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:32,520 So it's either a family of five or six. 100 00:05:32,520 --> 00:05:35,280 I don't really know the specifics. 101 00:05:35,280 --> 00:05:39,360 I'm going to say this and I mean it with confidence. 102 00:05:39,360 --> 00:05:41,840 The specifics don't really matter. 103 00:05:41,840 --> 00:05:42,840 Who could you say that? 104 00:05:42,840 --> 00:05:43,920 Because they don't. 105 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:45,920 It's the emotional journey that these characters go on. 106 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:48,800 And it's really Jesse and Leslie who we care about most. 107 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:53,260 And everybody in the story that exists around them is just to texture the story and texture 108 00:05:53,260 --> 00:05:59,560 their their stories and and give them the background that they need to give them the 109 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:04,200 ambiance of the the the environment that they need to exist in. 110 00:06:04,200 --> 00:06:06,000 Like they have to have an allotted dad. 111 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:11,120 You could have even minimized the parents role and had it be OK. 112 00:06:11,120 --> 00:06:14,040 But I think it's better for including them as much as it does. 113 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:15,040 And they're not included a lot. 114 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:17,600 They're very much like the kids are very much. 115 00:06:17,600 --> 00:06:21,420 Jesse and Leslie are very much the characters. 116 00:06:21,420 --> 00:06:23,680 And it just flashed in my mind that I'm saying her name wrong. 117 00:06:23,680 --> 00:06:24,680 Leslie. 118 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:25,680 It's not Leslie. 119 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:26,680 But it is Leslie. 120 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:27,680 I know that for sure. 121 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:28,960 I'm going to take my reputation out of that. 122 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:30,040 I know for sure. 123 00:06:30,040 --> 00:06:31,180 That's her name. 124 00:06:31,180 --> 00:06:35,640 For one reason, which is that there's the actor Leslie Nelson, who's a comedic actor, 125 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:37,240 has been in a bunch of stuff. 126 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:44,360 And at one point when she's first introduced, introduced Leslie, Jesse is not sure if she's 127 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:47,520 a boy or a girl because of the way she's dressed and her youthfulness and the fact that she 128 00:06:47,520 --> 00:06:48,520 has gone through puberty. 129 00:06:48,520 --> 00:06:50,280 I'm sure it's part of it. 130 00:06:50,280 --> 00:06:54,000 She's 11, 10, 10 to 11 throughout the course of the book. 131 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:55,920 I don't know how much the year starts. 132 00:06:55,920 --> 00:06:58,920 I don't know when it starts, but it ends around May. 133 00:06:58,920 --> 00:06:59,920 It's like after Easter. 134 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:01,800 It's like a few minutes and they that's specifically called out. 135 00:07:01,800 --> 00:07:02,960 So that's why I know. 136 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:05,840 Maybe it's maybe it's as late as June or getting creeping into summer. 137 00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:13,160 I'm not sure, but it's definitely not early in in the year. 138 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:21,440 So I am trying to explain to you, Jesse is one boy in a family of girls. 139 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:27,720 His dad works so hard because they're so poor and he's hardly there and he doesn't play 140 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:29,320 with his son anymore. 141 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:31,680 And Jesse is into the arts. 142 00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:32,680 He he won. 143 00:07:32,680 --> 00:07:33,680 He's in the arts. 144 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:34,680 That's a stupid way to say it. 145 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:35,680 Sorry. 146 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:36,680 Excuse me. 147 00:07:36,680 --> 00:07:37,680 I don't prefer to talk like that. 148 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:38,680 Jesse is an artist. 149 00:07:38,680 --> 00:07:45,040 He loves to draw and he thinks he wants to be a cartoonist or a comic book drawer or 150 00:07:45,040 --> 00:07:46,040 something like that. 151 00:07:46,040 --> 00:07:48,480 Probably a cartoonist, but maybe maybe he's in the comics. 152 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:53,520 I don't think he mentions at all specifically in the book that he reads comics, but we do 153 00:07:53,520 --> 00:07:59,600 get to see him reading classic children's fiction or classic fantasy, really, which 154 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:03,360 was in the beginning kind of all geared towards or understood to be for children. 155 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:05,640 So I think that's how I perceive it anyway. 156 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:07,880 Anyway, so I'll move on. 157 00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:08,880 So that's Jesse. 158 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:10,560 And then the other principal character is Leslie. 159 00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:11,560 Leslie is his friend. 160 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:13,520 She's the weird girl. 161 00:08:13,520 --> 00:08:18,040 She moves in at the place next door, which apparently is a place that lots of other families 162 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:19,040 have lived at. 163 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:20,520 And it's kind of like one of those cursed. 164 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:25,680 Like if you grew up in the suburbs, you know, in like retail, there's like the curse storefront 165 00:08:25,680 --> 00:08:26,680 in the strip mall. 166 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:28,440 Like, oh yeah, that place, it never stays open. 167 00:08:28,440 --> 00:08:30,160 It always changes. 168 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:34,580 And it just cycles through again and again and again to be different places. 169 00:08:34,580 --> 00:08:35,580 And that's kind of the same thing. 170 00:08:35,580 --> 00:08:43,040 I think it's the old Perkins place is the one where nobody can seem to stay. 171 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:46,080 And that's not really significant. 172 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,720 It's just a detail that her family moves there. 173 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:52,640 And it's her mom or dad and her. 174 00:08:52,640 --> 00:08:53,640 And that's it. 175 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:56,960 So she's an only child and just feels like he's an only child. 176 00:08:56,960 --> 00:09:02,560 He's the only boy and he's the only one who has who's at his level currently. 177 00:09:02,560 --> 00:09:04,080 Everybody else is at a different level. 178 00:09:04,080 --> 00:09:08,200 He's got older sisters who are trying to be into boys and be into fashion. 179 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:09,620 And they're kind of nasty and caddy. 180 00:09:09,620 --> 00:09:13,440 And the little sisters kind of copy them a little bit, but they're also very babyish. 181 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:15,520 And one of them is a hanger on who always wants to play with him. 182 00:09:15,520 --> 00:09:18,480 And she's got her own hanger on who always wants to play with her. 183 00:09:18,480 --> 00:09:23,400 And it's just an interesting, like it's a very realistic family dynamic. 184 00:09:23,400 --> 00:09:27,000 It's 100 percent super, super, super realistic. 185 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:31,880 And I've been exposed to this, these sorts of family dynamics on multiple fronts. 186 00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:34,380 And I can just attest to the fact that it's like super accurate. 187 00:09:34,380 --> 00:09:36,920 So that's really cool. 188 00:09:36,920 --> 00:09:40,960 And that's the context of the story. 189 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:42,960 That's where it's taking place. 190 00:09:42,960 --> 00:09:47,080 And you go to their school, they visit each other's homes at some point. 191 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:49,720 And then there's this, you know, the book is called Bridget Terabithia. 192 00:09:49,720 --> 00:09:52,280 MJ, why aren't you talking about Terabithia at all? 193 00:09:52,280 --> 00:09:57,880 Well, because Terabithia is just another thing that exists in the background, in my opinion, 194 00:09:57,880 --> 00:10:02,000 to service their stories together. 195 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:06,800 I suppose this is where I'm going to kind of sort of maybe but not really start spoiling 196 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:07,880 things a little bit. 197 00:10:07,880 --> 00:10:13,720 So Terabithia is unlike the film adaptation, which apparently was approved of and done 198 00:10:13,720 --> 00:10:17,280 in cooperation with the family. 199 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:18,560 Kathy Gosh, what is her name? 200 00:10:18,560 --> 00:10:21,160 I can't remember the last name, sorry, of the author. 201 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:27,360 But you check out some of her other books, too, because apparently they're good stuff. 202 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:35,640 Anyway, so, yeah, unlike the film adaptation, there is no Narnia like fantasy land that 203 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:37,460 the children enter into. 204 00:10:37,460 --> 00:10:38,960 They know they're playing. 205 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:44,040 And there's something magical in the fact that these two outcasts, for lack of a better 206 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:52,440 term, Jesse and Leslie end up working together and playing together and having a special 207 00:10:52,440 --> 00:10:55,400 friendship, which again, does not blossom into a romance. 208 00:10:55,400 --> 00:10:57,160 There's nothing that you know, there's no kissing. 209 00:10:57,160 --> 00:10:58,520 There's no holding hands. 210 00:10:58,520 --> 00:10:59,520 There's no hugging. 211 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:02,680 There's nothing weird to make it, you know, age inappropriate. 212 00:11:02,680 --> 00:11:06,720 It's like an innocent relationship that the two of them have. 213 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:07,720 It's a strong relationship. 214 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:10,360 There's a powerful bond that is formed between them. 215 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:20,400 But their maintenance of their keeping up with the game that is Terabithia is a beautiful 216 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:21,400 thing. 217 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:25,680 It actually like makes me think of or as I was listening to the book, it made me think 218 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:31,880 of like the magic that is children at play, because the power of imagination and the willing 219 00:11:31,880 --> 00:11:36,760 suspension of belief, not disbelief, the willing suspension of belief that like, yeah, I'm 220 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:41,160 going to stop believing in this mundane, you know, difficult world I live in. 221 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:45,720 And for a little while, I'm going to believe in something better and believing something 222 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:47,920 different, believe in a world of my own making. 223 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:52,480 Like that's that's beautiful. 224 00:11:52,480 --> 00:11:53,480 That's really beautiful. 225 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:56,360 And that's something that you get to see in this book. 226 00:11:56,360 --> 00:11:59,360 And it's charming. 227 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:00,360 It was super charming. 228 00:12:00,360 --> 00:12:01,360 It was super charming. 229 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:02,520 It was super beautiful. 230 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:08,120 And it didn't need to be lofty or use fancy words or things like that. 231 00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:09,120 And it didn't need to be. 232 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:10,120 I don't know. 233 00:12:10,120 --> 00:12:17,960 It didn't need to be anything other than like an innocent, sweet, lovely, lovingly told 234 00:12:17,960 --> 00:12:27,440 story of these kids escaping into each other and into this fantasy world that they created, 235 00:12:27,440 --> 00:12:29,600 because life is hard. 236 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:38,040 And sometimes getting to escape into another world is what you need. 237 00:12:38,040 --> 00:12:44,000 And it's better when that world has like a solid core of reality and truth to it, being 238 00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:47,760 out in the woods, being out in the forest among animals and trees and leaves and the 239 00:12:47,760 --> 00:12:49,480 creek and everything. 240 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:55,280 And it's even better when that world that escape that you take is into or with another 241 00:12:55,280 --> 00:13:02,680 person because I don't know, people are part of this world too. 242 00:13:02,680 --> 00:13:05,840 And people make this world hard for other people. 243 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:11,160 Therefore, it's poetic and just that people should make this world easier for other people 244 00:13:11,160 --> 00:13:12,160 too. 245 00:13:12,160 --> 00:13:17,120 And that's what Jesse and Leslie do for each other. 246 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:18,360 It's really beautiful. 247 00:13:18,360 --> 00:13:23,960 Like I'll start unraveling a little bit more as time goes on. 248 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:39,040 Like I definitely feel like these kids love each other and that they definitely love each 249 00:13:39,040 --> 00:13:43,000 other and they value each other deeply as friends. 250 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:45,020 Like they're almost brother and sister. 251 00:13:45,020 --> 00:13:49,160 They almost become each other's brother and sister because Leslie is an only child and 252 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:52,320 Jesse is estranged from his sisters. 253 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:56,800 But in loving Leslie the way he does, and I'm just going to boldly state that that's 254 00:13:56,800 --> 00:14:01,080 my interpretation of the book is he loves Leslie and Leslie loves him. 255 00:14:01,080 --> 00:14:08,320 That in loving her the way that he did, it taught him how to love his sisters, at least 256 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:10,760 his younger sisters. 257 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:15,040 And it transformed him and helped him to become a better person. 258 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:18,840 And you really only get his perspective. 259 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:25,880 You really only get the books told from his perspective so you don't catch everything 260 00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:30,200 that Leslie, you don't catch all her insights. 261 00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:32,320 You don't know exactly what she thinks of him. 262 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:34,240 But you can tell that there's an affection. 263 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:36,760 You can tell that there's that love there too. 264 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:42,440 And like she definitely cares for him and is tender towards him, but in her own like 265 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:45,440 tomboyish fun sort of way. 266 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:51,080 And it's really interesting to see the interplay of their relationship and to think about how 267 00:14:51,080 --> 00:14:52,760 it's changed both of them. 268 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:57,640 And again, like I'm saying, it's more clear how it changes him than how it changes her. 269 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:01,320 Yeah, that's that's what we'll see for now. 270 00:15:01,320 --> 00:15:05,640 I'm going to pivot to something else and I will get back to Women in Tight Teens. 271 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:06,640 Okay, don't worry. 272 00:15:06,640 --> 00:15:07,640 I will not abandon that. 273 00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:11,000 And again, this is a family friendly show where I'm talking about what should be family 274 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,800 friendly books in a family friendly way. 275 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:28,760 Now, now what I'll continue to say is that there is while this is a family friendly book, 276 00:15:28,760 --> 00:15:34,840 there is darkness in it and there is negativity that happens for sure. 277 00:15:34,840 --> 00:15:40,800 There's a girl at school who is a bully who you learn in the course of the book is being 278 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:44,800 physically abused by her father on a regular basis. 279 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:51,280 And Leslie is able to offer her comfort and Leslie and Jesse basically become friends 280 00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:58,440 with her after helping her not even really deal with like she's going to continue to 281 00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:03,000 be abused by her father, you know, beaten by her father. 282 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:07,080 And the book never addresses that it lets it be because it's a fact of life. 283 00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:16,080 And while this book has this fantasy element of terabithia at the heart of it, because 284 00:16:16,080 --> 00:16:22,240 it's this world that allows these kids to escape and it's just the two of them. 285 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:26,600 It allows them to escape from things and you know, I don't know. 286 00:16:26,600 --> 00:16:30,200 I don't know if they escape to the world and process things or if it's just the world that 287 00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,880 they escape to together. 288 00:16:32,880 --> 00:16:38,520 And it makes them better, stronger, nobler people and they can do things like comfort 289 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:39,880 this girl. 290 00:16:39,880 --> 00:16:42,440 But there's no magic that's going to fix that. 291 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:44,440 She's still going to be abused by her father. 292 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:50,240 The facts don't change because you're better at coping with them. 293 00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:53,600 Or you know, in the process of the book, they're better at coping with them. 294 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:55,860 And that's like heartbreaking. 295 00:16:55,860 --> 00:16:57,200 But it's true. 296 00:16:57,200 --> 00:16:59,240 And it almost makes it even more beautiful. 297 00:16:59,240 --> 00:17:08,560 And it makes the imaginative world of terabithia more important and more powerful in a way, 298 00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:12,040 even though it can't change things, but it can sort of make them better. 299 00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:15,480 And golly, that's really interesting. 300 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:16,480 That's fascinating. 301 00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:23,440 It's interesting too, because this girl is bullied. 302 00:17:23,440 --> 00:17:28,120 She had been mean to Maybel, Jessie's little sister. 303 00:17:28,120 --> 00:17:37,080 And they ended up together, Jessie and Leslie, coming up with a plan to humiliate the bully, 304 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:39,000 whose name I can't remember right now. 305 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:43,560 They mock her, they call her fat, they call her ugly, but they call her fat for sure. 306 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:47,280 And they plan to embarrass her in front of the whole school, which is awful. 307 00:17:47,280 --> 00:17:48,280 That's bad. 308 00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:49,280 But they're kids. 309 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:52,560 They're kids without a strong moral guidance. 310 00:17:52,560 --> 00:17:55,400 Jessie and his family never go to church because of something. 311 00:17:55,400 --> 00:17:57,400 They go to church at Easter and I think that's it. 312 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:02,720 Not even Christmas, just Easter, because of something that happened between his mother 313 00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:11,000 and the pastor, I guess, at the church that they go to occasionally. 314 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:13,200 And Leslie's parents, they're not religious. 315 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:14,600 And they're not religious. 316 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:16,760 I don't know. 317 00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:21,920 She challenges Jessie about a matter of scriptural doctrine, and she asks him, have you even 318 00:18:21,920 --> 00:18:22,920 read the Bible? 319 00:18:22,920 --> 00:18:23,920 And he's like, oh, I've read most of it. 320 00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:26,720 It's about the only book we have here, which is interesting. 321 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:32,480 But she comes from a much wider world. 322 00:18:32,480 --> 00:18:35,920 Her family comes from Arlington, which I don't know if at the time, if that was considered 323 00:18:35,920 --> 00:18:38,200 to be a big city or not. 324 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:42,640 Heck, I don't even know if it's really a big city now because I don't pay attention to 325 00:18:42,640 --> 00:18:45,960 the states I don't live in and their specific cities. 326 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:48,400 Sorry, it's who I am. 327 00:18:48,400 --> 00:18:50,440 I hope you can cope with that. 328 00:18:50,440 --> 00:18:54,640 Anyway, but she just comes from a different world. 329 00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:58,640 Her parents are well-educated. 330 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:00,460 Not only are they well-educated, but they're well-informed. 331 00:19:00,460 --> 00:19:02,400 They listen to the news or they misinformed. 332 00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:04,400 How does that go again? 333 00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:10,320 Anyway, Jessie's parents are basically country bumpkins. 334 00:19:10,320 --> 00:19:11,680 And that's all they are. 335 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:15,480 And that may be all they'll ever be. 336 00:19:15,480 --> 00:19:20,920 And her parents being yuppies or hippies and his parents being country bumpkins, that's 337 00:19:20,920 --> 00:19:22,880 never judged by the book. 338 00:19:22,880 --> 00:19:29,040 The parents, at least his parents, think his mom thinks that his parents or her parents 339 00:19:29,040 --> 00:19:33,800 are going to judge her for being so humble and offering them ham sandwiches at one point 340 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:37,080 because that's the best this poor southern woman has to give. 341 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:39,680 And that's really interesting and endearing and sweet. 342 00:19:39,680 --> 00:19:41,520 And the book doesn't say anything about it. 343 00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:48,220 It doesn't say whether she's stupid and backwards for worrying about that or whether they do 344 00:19:48,220 --> 00:19:49,400 judge her. 345 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:52,520 You don't get to see that perspective, but she feels insecure. 346 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:53,520 You get that perspective. 347 00:19:53,520 --> 00:19:57,860 You get Jessie's perspective knowing that his mom is insecure about their poverty and 348 00:19:57,860 --> 00:20:02,200 about the fact that they're so country and that these people who aren't country or as 349 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:09,760 country being from Arlington are coming to them and having to deal with them in this 350 00:20:09,760 --> 00:20:10,760 way. 351 00:20:10,760 --> 00:20:19,400 But gosh, it's such a realistic book and yet it's so, I think, family-friendly, kid-friendly. 352 00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:24,960 Definitely dramatic, dark, sad stuff happens, but yeah, that happens in life too. 353 00:20:24,960 --> 00:20:26,400 That happens in life too. 354 00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:30,440 And the book portrays that so beautifully. 355 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:33,960 I'm going to start opening up again a little bit more. 356 00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:42,560 And again, this is a family-friendly show, but I am an adult and I'm speaking to adults 357 00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:46,800 concerning their children, concerning these books and whether or not they would like them 358 00:20:46,800 --> 00:20:53,000 and how they should regard them or things they should maybe be cautious about regarding 359 00:20:53,000 --> 00:20:55,160 their children reading these books. 360 00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:58,160 So here we go. 361 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:05,840 For context, I criticize Chuck Everlasting for winning, Winnie Foster, calling Jessie 362 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:12,000 Chuck beautiful and kind of being in love with him and being infatuated with him while 363 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,120 she was kidnapped and taken to his home with his family. 364 00:21:16,120 --> 00:21:19,320 Once again, it was a gentle kidnapping and you've got to hear the whole context to understand 365 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:24,320 why I could feel that way and why I could think the kidnapping is okay. 366 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:28,020 But nobody does any kidnapping in this book. 367 00:21:28,020 --> 00:21:31,480 Nobody calls anybody beautiful, explicitly. 368 00:21:31,480 --> 00:21:35,920 There is a teacher at the school who is a liberated woman, because it's the late 70s, 369 00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:42,120 I think, and she wears jeans, tight jeans apparently, with a funny cow, which I think 370 00:21:42,120 --> 00:21:44,080 means bell-bottoms, but I don't know for sure. 371 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:47,240 None of the other women at the school do. 372 00:21:47,240 --> 00:21:51,760 She comes in only on Fridays, I believe, as the music teacher and does this music singing 373 00:21:51,760 --> 00:21:56,280 thing with the kids where she's playing her guitar and they're playing or hacking away 374 00:21:56,280 --> 00:22:00,440 at other instruments, trying to play and all singing along, whether it's, I don't know 375 00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:01,440 if it's Beatles songs. 376 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:06,280 I feel like they mention it in Beatles, but playing popular music and also, I don't know 377 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:08,040 if it's, it's not God Bless America. 378 00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:10,180 It's like the national anthem or something. 379 00:22:10,180 --> 00:22:11,720 They sing something patriotic as well. 380 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,720 I don't know if they sing any churchy songs, maybe in the south. 381 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:18,040 I feel like it's Alabama, but I don't know for sure, but it doesn't really matter. 382 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:20,440 It's supposedly to be nonspecific. 383 00:22:20,440 --> 00:22:25,920 Anyway, but she's like this bright spot in the school and she's the reason Jesse tolerates 384 00:22:25,920 --> 00:22:28,640 going to school. 385 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:36,200 Her songs and her joy and her, I guess her attractiveness, it appeals to him as a 10 386 00:22:36,200 --> 00:22:40,000 or 11 year old boy and he never lusts after her. 387 00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:41,880 He's not disgusting about it. 388 00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,080 He never outright calls her beautiful. 389 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:50,960 I don't think, but you can tell he's kind of like got a kid level crush on this teacher. 390 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:56,840 And at one point she takes him out to a museum during this time where it's like pouring rain, 391 00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:00,760 torrential rain right around, right after Easter. 392 00:23:00,760 --> 00:23:03,720 It's during the Easter break, spring break, whatever. 393 00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:08,320 And she takes him to this museum and he has a good time with her. 394 00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:17,480 He enjoys it and he almost wishes that Leslie's with them, but he didn't really have a chance 395 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:18,480 to get her. 396 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:19,480 I don't know. 397 00:23:19,480 --> 00:23:23,480 It's somewhere between he didn't have a chance to get her to come along and he didn't ask 398 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:24,960 because this is his favorite teacher. 399 00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:28,840 Oh yeah, maybe he's sort of in love with her in fact, you would do with and that's okay 400 00:23:28,840 --> 00:23:30,480 because no lines ever get crossed. 401 00:23:30,480 --> 00:23:36,240 Like she doesn't talk about it like it's a date, but she talks about how when she takes 402 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:40,720 a man out, she, you know, because she's a liberated woman, she pays her own way and 403 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:41,720 things like that. 404 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:45,880 Cause he's a poor kid and like she's saying these things to comfort him and he panics 405 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:49,160 at one point cause he doesn't have any money to pay for food while they're out at the museum 406 00:23:49,160 --> 00:23:50,640 together and she handles it. 407 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:54,560 But like she plays it off as if as almost as if they're out on a date, you know, she 408 00:23:54,560 --> 00:23:56,600 calls him a man, which he's not. 409 00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:00,880 And she, you know, again, pretends kind of like they're on a date, but not really. 410 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:05,800 Like it's just a joke and it's just a way to cover over this uncomfortable thing that 411 00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:09,000 this kid's impoverished and you don't want to embarrass him by pointing that out. 412 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:13,320 So instead she turns it into something else and you know, makes it okay that he's not 413 00:24:13,320 --> 00:24:15,240 paying cause you know, they're not going Dutch. 414 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,280 She, you know, she's taking care of the whole bill this time, you know, maybe next time 415 00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:20,400 he'll take care of it or whatever, but like that's all it is. 416 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:22,600 And it's a very innocent and very sweet. 417 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:24,760 And I don't feel like she was a creeper at all. 418 00:24:24,760 --> 00:24:27,480 It was the 1970s. 419 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:32,680 I think this sort of thing would happen in the 1970s in the South with a single woman. 420 00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:36,080 If she was married, maybe her husband would be there with her, but then again, if she 421 00:24:36,080 --> 00:24:40,080 was married, she probably wouldn't have taken Jesse or maybe she would have taken him and 422 00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:42,200 another kid or two. 423 00:24:42,200 --> 00:24:45,320 But you know, that those things kind of don't matter. 424 00:24:45,320 --> 00:24:48,440 And I feel like it's a completely different circumstance. 425 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:50,720 She ostensibly gets permission from him. 426 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:55,400 He goes and tries not too hard to wake up his mom and she kind of rolls over and says 427 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:57,240 mumbles yes, then goes back to sleep. 428 00:24:57,240 --> 00:24:59,540 So you know, that's not her though. 429 00:24:59,540 --> 00:25:03,080 That's not on the teacher whose name I don't remember at the moment. 430 00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:04,080 That's not her. 431 00:25:04,080 --> 00:25:05,080 She wasn't doing that. 432 00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:09,880 She was in good faith trying to get permission from his parents. 433 00:25:09,880 --> 00:25:11,560 She asked, do you need to get permission? 434 00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:13,560 He said, yes, I do. 435 00:25:13,560 --> 00:25:14,960 Yes, yes, I do, man. 436 00:25:14,960 --> 00:25:15,960 I'll be right back. 437 00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:19,160 And he went and got permission, so to speak, from his mother. 438 00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:20,160 But that's his infraction. 439 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:21,160 That's his violation. 440 00:25:21,160 --> 00:25:22,160 That's nothing on her. 441 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:23,160 And then nothing untoward happens. 442 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:26,360 I don't think even whiffing of a creepiness happens. 443 00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:31,640 He just mentions the fact that she's got pretty hair and it brushes against his face when 444 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:36,360 she's leaning over to talk to him about something and he takes note of it, which is very much 445 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:38,640 a reasonable thing to happen. 446 00:25:38,640 --> 00:25:40,640 But it's not treated. 447 00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:43,520 She's not taking advantage and he's not really being a creep either. 448 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:44,520 He's not taking advantage of it. 449 00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:50,280 He's shocked by it and his mind is kind of blown by it, but it's not that way. 450 00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:54,720 And yeah, you may argue that I'm justifying it because it was a boy in this circumstance 451 00:25:54,720 --> 00:25:57,520 and not a girl, but hey, you know what? 452 00:25:57,520 --> 00:25:59,720 Go ahead, argue with me. 453 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:00,720 Let's talk about it. 454 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,040 If you read the book, especially if you read it recently, then let's talk about it and 455 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,960 you can tell me where I'm missing things or where I've turned a blind eye to secret hidden 456 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:12,200 creepiness in this book, like Untucked Everlasting. 457 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:13,960 But yeah, I don't see it. 458 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:17,840 And if you can reveal it to me in some conversation, I'd be happy to hear you out. 459 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:19,000 But I just I don't see it. 460 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:20,000 I don't see it. 461 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:23,880 It feels really innocent to me and it feels handled very well. 462 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:28,160 Even though like, yeah, maybe he you know, or he definitely had a crush on this lady 463 00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:30,200 and maybe he could have said he was in love with her. 464 00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:32,800 Maybe he could have like he didn't try to like, oh, I'm going to get her to kiss me 465 00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:36,760 or I'm going to, you know, kiss her or like hold her hand or none of that happened. 466 00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:38,720 None of that happened at all. 467 00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:41,360 And I'm just being defensive over the book now. 468 00:26:41,360 --> 00:26:42,760 Now we are late into this episode. 469 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:49,120 This is the longest so far an episode of Fortress Fiction is gone. 470 00:26:49,120 --> 00:26:52,640 And I'm going to let it go a little bit longer because I'm going to get into the guts. 471 00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:56,000 I'm going to get into the full spoilers. 472 00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:57,000 We're going to go 100 percent. 473 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:01,680 So if you have not read this book, but you're intrigued about this book, about a friendship 474 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:06,160 between a boy and a girl in the south where they basically become brother and sister to 475 00:27:06,160 --> 00:27:11,160 each other, where they become like family to each other because they're both kind of 476 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:16,160 on the outs and alone in their own way and they find solace and comfort in each other. 477 00:27:16,160 --> 00:27:19,800 But then there's this whole thing about this, you know, this teacher that I've been going 478 00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:21,240 on about what's going to happen. 479 00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:22,240 What's what's it? 480 00:27:22,240 --> 00:27:23,240 Why did somebody ban this book? 481 00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,640 Well, I'll tell you right now, if you haven't gotten out of here, I'll give you like five 482 00:27:26,640 --> 00:27:31,760 more seconds and I'm going to tell you what happens. 483 00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:36,560 The reason this book is banned is apparently because 10 years old, according to some people, 484 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:41,480 is not an appropriate age to deal with death. 485 00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:44,880 Death is not a topic appropriate for 10 year olds. 486 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:50,480 Ten year olds encounter death, though they encounter it in their grandparents. 487 00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,800 God forbid in their own mother and father. 488 00:27:53,800 --> 00:27:57,060 God forbid they experience it with a sibling or a friend. 489 00:27:57,060 --> 00:28:00,320 And that's exactly what happens in this book. 490 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:03,320 Leslie dies. 491 00:28:03,320 --> 00:28:07,280 I didn't go over this and we never talked about why the book is called Bridge to Terabithia, 492 00:28:07,280 --> 00:28:08,280 but I'll just say it now. 493 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:15,000 It's because at the end of the book, Jess builds a bridge to Terabithia so that his 494 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:20,200 sister, Mabel specifically, and maybe even the younger one below her, can enjoy Terabithia 495 00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:25,200 safely one day because he's going to introduce them to the wonder and magic and imagination 496 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:32,360 of Terabithia, which he was king of and Leslie was queen of until she died. 497 00:28:32,360 --> 00:28:38,320 And the way that they got into Terabithia was through swinging over a rope or swinging 498 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:47,360 over a little dry stream, which becomes full of water during those April showers during 499 00:28:47,360 --> 00:28:48,360 the Easter break. 500 00:28:48,360 --> 00:28:54,720 It rains and rains and rains and it's so swollen that Jessie is scared to go over the water 501 00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:58,640 and he wants to cross some other way, but they never have a full conversation about 502 00:28:58,640 --> 00:28:59,640 it. 503 00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:06,680 And then I guess while he's at the museum with the teacher, Leslie goes ahead and wants 504 00:29:06,680 --> 00:29:10,960 to go to Terabithia herself and enjoy it in the rain like they had previously, like just 505 00:29:10,960 --> 00:29:12,320 the other day. 506 00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:16,320 And she ends up slipping off, falling into the water. 507 00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:17,680 The water is moving quickly. 508 00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:19,200 She hits her head against a rock. 509 00:29:19,200 --> 00:29:21,280 I assume she drowns and dies. 510 00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:25,560 And that's awful. 511 00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,480 Like this book is only three hours long and somehow in that three hours or less than three 512 00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,760 hours I have enough of a strong emotional connection. 513 00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:33,760 Maybe it's because I'm thinking about, God forbid, this sort of thing happening to my 514 00:29:33,760 --> 00:29:39,480 own kids or just how sad it would be to lose a friend like that or to lose your child. 515 00:29:39,480 --> 00:29:45,040 I mean, I have, I thought about my wife, you know. 516 00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:49,720 Just the phrase, she's my Leslie comes to mind. 517 00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:52,160 And that's not entirely accurate. 518 00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,960 But it's close enough to be true that like imagine losing your best friend like that 519 00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:56,960 is awful. 520 00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:00,640 And then also being a father, imagine losing a child like that is absolutely awful. 521 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:04,160 And it's so sad. 522 00:30:04,160 --> 00:30:07,360 And it's so bitter. 523 00:30:07,360 --> 00:30:09,520 But the book is sweet overall. 524 00:30:09,520 --> 00:30:13,600 And it's even sweet in the morning process. 525 00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:15,720 And I mean, surely it's bittersweet. 526 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,120 But like, I don't know, it's a beautiful book. 527 00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:22,600 It's a beautiful book, even though this little girl dies, this innocent little girl dies. 528 00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:28,360 And then this innocent boy is left to deal with that. 529 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:31,760 The fact that his friend is dead and he can't do anything about it. 530 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,240 There is no magic that can bring her back. 531 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:40,720 And I don't know. 532 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:41,720 He wants to deny it. 533 00:30:41,720 --> 00:30:45,360 He pretends it didn't happen for a while until he admits that it did. 534 00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,600 And then he processes it. 535 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:52,400 And like, yeah, it's so hard to talk about. 536 00:30:52,400 --> 00:31:01,000 He ultimately processes it by or, you know, after his mother and father treat him kind 537 00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:02,520 of in a special way. 538 00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:04,960 And his dad tries to comfort him, but he doesn't have the words. 539 00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:08,280 And he just holds his son and tells him, yeah, this is hard. 540 00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:15,840 And he says, hell, like, it don't get any easier. 541 00:31:15,840 --> 00:31:17,720 Or it gets worse, I think is what he tells him. 542 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:22,400 And, you know, he's a strange father who, for many reasons, couldn't be close to him 543 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:23,400 anymore. 544 00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:30,720 And that hurt him, hurt Jess in a big way, you know, through this tragedy, they become 545 00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:32,040 a little closer. 546 00:31:32,040 --> 00:31:37,000 And there's like healing for him in drawing close to some of his family. 547 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:38,920 His father, for sure, maybe his mother, probably his mother. 548 00:31:38,920 --> 00:31:40,240 She seems like a good lady. 549 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,080 She's just tired and poor and trying hard. 550 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:51,560 And his little sister, Maybel, beneath him for sure, Jess comes closer to her and helps 551 00:31:51,560 --> 00:31:52,560 her. 552 00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:53,560 Helps her. 553 00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:59,120 And he turns to her and helps her with open arms and with warmth. 554 00:31:59,120 --> 00:32:06,760 And that helps to heal him and help him cope with the tragic loss of his friend. 555 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,440 And yeah, I mean, it's beautiful. 556 00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:10,440 It's so beautiful. 557 00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:15,320 I need to take a break because I'm super emotional. 558 00:32:15,320 --> 00:32:21,560 And I don't know what to say other than spending the next five minutes just figuring out different 559 00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:27,360 ways to say this is a beautiful book. 560 00:32:27,360 --> 00:32:28,360 So I'm back. 561 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:29,440 I have recovered. 562 00:32:29,440 --> 00:32:34,560 And we'll see if I collapse again under the weight of my heart, under the weight of emotions. 563 00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:35,720 But here we go. 564 00:32:35,720 --> 00:32:38,840 So I was thinking about this book a little bit more. 565 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:44,720 And the last thing I want to close out with is just a little bit of well, first of all, 566 00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:49,460 before I get going, I want to remind you that I'd love to hear your thoughts on this book. 567 00:32:49,460 --> 00:32:50,460 Did you like it? 568 00:32:50,460 --> 00:32:51,460 Did you not like it? 569 00:32:51,460 --> 00:32:56,880 Were you as shocked as me when you saw the film adaptation and it went from being something 570 00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:00,360 cool and fantastical and fun to something heartbreaking? 571 00:33:00,360 --> 00:33:04,480 Because that was a shocker to me. 572 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:09,320 But yeah, any questions you have about it, any thoughts you have about the book itself 573 00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:19,240 or about my possible hypocrisy and liking the complexity of relationships that we explore 574 00:33:19,240 --> 00:33:23,520 with Jess a little bit, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on all that stuff. 575 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:28,720 So yeah, before, like I said, before I forget, because I'm going to get spun up, I was really 576 00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:32,320 pleased with the fact that there were some literary references. 577 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:38,320 There were some real politique references here. 578 00:33:38,320 --> 00:33:43,360 Like the story didn't hold back on being very realistic and feeling very much like it was 579 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:49,280 a slice of life cut out of somebody's, you know, somebody's life, someone's real world 580 00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,360 and presenting to you as, you know, this fantastical story. 581 00:33:52,360 --> 00:33:55,320 And it's the thing is, it's not really a fantastical story. 582 00:33:55,320 --> 00:34:01,160 The wonder and the magic that the kids experience is fantastical, but we don't really get to 583 00:34:01,160 --> 00:34:04,920 see. 584 00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:05,920 We don't really get to see it. 585 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:06,920 It's like set dressing. 586 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:09,920 It's just there in the background humming along all on its own. 587 00:34:09,920 --> 00:34:13,120 I don't know what terabithia looks like, sounds like anything like that. 588 00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:18,760 You know, to me, it's vaguely Narnia, which they reference the Narnia books. 589 00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:23,400 Leslie Lenz, Jess, all her Narnia books, which is super cool. 590 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:27,280 They also reference the adventures of an assistant pig keeper, which I'll just tell you is the 591 00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:31,080 Chronicles of Bredain, which is amazing because I think weren't those books super new? 592 00:34:31,080 --> 00:34:33,280 I think those books came out in the seventies. 593 00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:34,840 So that's like super. 594 00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:39,480 Well, and also the first book came out, I think, believe early seventies. 595 00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:45,680 So that's like super of the time, super modern or super what's the word I'm looking for? 596 00:34:45,680 --> 00:34:46,680 I'm not sure. 597 00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,360 But the whole Chronicles of Bredain, that's fantastic book series. 598 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,560 I don't believe I've included any of Lloyd Alexander's masterpiece. 599 00:34:52,560 --> 00:34:57,280 I haven't read all this stuff, so I couldn't tell you, but it's a fantastic set of books, 600 00:34:57,280 --> 00:34:58,280 five books. 601 00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:00,440 Those are a hard recommend. 602 00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:07,040 I don't think I'm going to be talking about them in this twenty twenty four fortress fiction, 603 00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:10,000 but they definitely obviously they belong in the fortress. 604 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:16,000 They are potentially a wonderful foundation piece and Keystone and Cornerstone and all 605 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:21,760 that good stuff for the fortress fiction because they're just that darn just this is that blessedly 606 00:35:21,760 --> 00:35:22,760 good. 607 00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,840 So anyway, check those out. 608 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:28,940 And they're not better or worse than Terabithia. 609 00:35:28,940 --> 00:35:30,720 They are different. 610 00:35:30,720 --> 00:35:36,080 They're entirely different breeds of books meant to do different things. 611 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:39,360 But they're both beautiful and heartbreaking in their own ways. 612 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:47,600 I would say the Chronicles of Bredain less so than Bridges of Terabithia, but still great 613 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:51,120 stories and great stories, wonderful, fun characters. 614 00:35:51,120 --> 00:35:54,380 Anyway, they mention Lewis. 615 00:35:54,380 --> 00:35:56,700 They mentioned Alexander. 616 00:35:56,700 --> 00:35:58,600 They don't talk about Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit at all. 617 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:01,280 There's no mention of those. 618 00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:02,280 What else is there? 619 00:36:02,280 --> 00:36:03,280 I don't know. 620 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:08,120 I was really surprised and pleased with like the TV and music and like general pop culture 621 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:09,120 references. 622 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:11,560 Like these feel like real kids in the real time. 623 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:16,120 And like there's even talk of Vietnam War, you know, being post Vietnam War. 624 00:36:16,120 --> 00:36:19,360 And it's just like, I don't know, it was very cool, like the realness of the world. 625 00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:23,400 The only thing is that I don't think there were any Marvel or DC Comics characters mentioned, 626 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:24,400 which I'm fine with. 627 00:36:24,400 --> 00:36:26,840 It's just maybe being on the sticks. 628 00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:29,040 This wouldn't have had very good access to those. 629 00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:35,000 But my impression is that people in rural southern states also had decent access to, 630 00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:40,280 you know, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Batman, if you must, Superman, I guess 631 00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:41,280 too. 632 00:36:41,280 --> 00:36:43,960 You see where my bias is my line. 633 00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:52,880 But anyway, I liked it like it felt like it felt like Leslie and her family because her 634 00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:54,780 parents are so well educated. 635 00:36:54,780 --> 00:36:58,680 Like they're very well rounded and worldly and they want to absorb all this culture and 636 00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:05,920 stuff, which to me is like more I'm closer to Jess's dad, like, you know, blue collar, 637 00:37:05,920 --> 00:37:08,440 except I'm really into books, right? 638 00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:11,800 But like I'm much closer to being blue collar than being a yuppie. 639 00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,960 I think, I think, I don't know, like I definitely work a blue collar job. 640 00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:20,320 I'm in a blue collar work vehicle right now, driving it down the road, you know, in blue 641 00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:21,320 jeans and stuff. 642 00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:23,040 So I don't know. 643 00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:27,680 That's weird and it doesn't really matter how I assess myself, but I definitely identify 644 00:37:27,680 --> 00:37:30,880 and have an appreciation for the blue collar among us. 645 00:37:30,880 --> 00:37:37,480 And yet I do think that fiction is accessible, especially fantasy is accessible because it 646 00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:39,880 just takes you to another world. 647 00:37:39,880 --> 00:37:47,240 And both the yuppie and the, you know, the poor farmer kid can enjoy the marvel and the 648 00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:57,120 wonder and the fantasy of being in a kingdom and watching an epic battle involving good 649 00:37:57,120 --> 00:38:03,840 and evil and kingdoms and crowns and knights and wizards and witches and stuff like that. 650 00:38:03,840 --> 00:38:09,720 Everybody can appreciate that because I think those stories are so mythic that they just 651 00:38:09,720 --> 00:38:16,480 take on, that they, they, you can see the archetypes through them or you can feel the 652 00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,480 archetypes through them and that matters more than anything else. 653 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:24,800 You can see your uncle or your grandpa or the nice guy down the street as the wizard 654 00:38:24,800 --> 00:38:26,840 or maybe your mom's the wizard. 655 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,840 She's into alternative medicines and stuff. 656 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:34,480 And you know, maybe your dad's the warrior or heck, maybe it's even your mom who's dealing 657 00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:42,520 with bedtime and sick kids and teachers being upset with her kids and she does her battle 658 00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:49,280 every day and your dad's the ranger going off and then coming back tired and bringing 659 00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:50,760 in something for the family. 660 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,520 It just, it all scales, all the fantasy. 661 00:38:53,520 --> 00:38:57,760 Like I've heard this said, and I don't know if it's true because I haven't studied it, 662 00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:01,840 but I believe it's probably true that when we read something, when we watch something, 663 00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:03,920 we experience that thing. 664 00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:09,280 Like our brains don't really understand that these things are happening to different, to 665 00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:10,560 characters, to fictional characters. 666 00:39:10,560 --> 00:39:15,440 They feel, they feel, they perceive, they see these things as if they're happening to 667 00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:16,640 us. 668 00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:22,200 And that's really groovy. 669 00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:25,840 But I think that's something that people know. 670 00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:30,160 I think it's something that people who write books and want to tell stories like into it, 671 00:39:30,160 --> 00:39:34,480 like they know that their stories matter because they know that they can make an impact on 672 00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:35,600 people. 673 00:39:35,600 --> 00:39:40,840 And I, one, appreciate that and I like that and I felt that in this book. 674 00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:48,520 And two, I feel like the nods that Kathy, I'm so sorry. 675 00:39:48,520 --> 00:39:50,080 I'm not trying to be flippant or disrespectful. 676 00:39:50,080 --> 00:39:53,040 I just can't remember the author's name. 677 00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:58,400 I was more focused on the book itself than who she is, but I feel like she felt that 678 00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:01,440 and she knew that and she kind of had that in mind. 679 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:07,240 Katherine Patterson, I think later in some of her other books, she's Katie, Katie Patterson, 680 00:40:07,240 --> 00:40:10,560 but here Katherine Patterson, that's her name. 681 00:40:10,560 --> 00:40:13,920 That's the author of this wonderful, wonderful book, the excellent author of this wonderful 682 00:40:13,920 --> 00:40:14,920 book. 683 00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:19,920 And I think she was saying like, yeah, you know, I'm not a Tolkien, Tolkien wasn't mentioned. 684 00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:21,240 I'm not a Lewis. 685 00:40:21,240 --> 00:40:24,680 I'm not a, who else did I mention? 686 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:26,560 Oh, I'm not an Alexander. 687 00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:32,240 I'm not any of these people, but or, and I'm not jealous of them and I admit that their 688 00:40:32,240 --> 00:40:36,080 books are great and wonderful and beautiful and have amazing things in them. 689 00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:41,240 And I cherish them and treasure them so much that I'm going to make these kids in my story 690 00:40:41,240 --> 00:40:45,960 also treasure and cherish them as well and gain so much from them. 691 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:46,960 And that's really cool. 692 00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:52,960 And I mean, the time that they must have known each other, they got together in the beginning 693 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:57,560 of the school year, which is like the fall and then by the spring Leslie was dead. 694 00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:01,720 And in between then he must have read, he must have devoured Jess must have devoured 695 00:41:01,720 --> 00:41:06,120 the Chronicles of Narnia and some of the other books. 696 00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:07,120 So that's pretty cool. 697 00:41:07,120 --> 00:41:10,120 And then even like the way that there's this really interesting conversation they have 698 00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:15,440 because Leslie isn't religious and there she goes to Easter Sunday, I guess, Sunray service 699 00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:20,400 or whatever with the, with the family, with Jess's family and Maybel ends up talking to 700 00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:25,880 her and there's almost like a philosophical debate and question and thing like, or debate 701 00:41:25,880 --> 00:41:29,720 kerfuffle kind of thing because Leslie and her family aren't religious at all. 702 00:41:29,720 --> 00:41:33,520 And Jess's family ostensibly are to the fact to the point that Maybel says you've got to 703 00:41:33,520 --> 00:41:35,080 believe like you have to believe the Bible. 704 00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:36,960 If you don't believe the Bible, that's not okay. 705 00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:38,580 Like how can you do that? 706 00:41:38,580 --> 00:41:42,480 And you're going to go like the Bible says, or you know, I learned basically Maybel said, 707 00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:47,440 I learned that if you don't believe everything the Bible says, you're going to hell. 708 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:50,880 And Leslie wasn't raised that way. 709 00:41:50,880 --> 00:41:52,440 And she says, you know, how can you say that? 710 00:41:52,440 --> 00:41:53,440 Does the Bible say that? 711 00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:54,960 Did you actually read that in the Bible? 712 00:41:54,960 --> 00:41:59,600 She challenges their presuppositions, which I believe I've read the Bible cover to cover 713 00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:00,600 many times. 714 00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:04,880 And I know for a fact that it doesn't say that if you don't believe everything in the 715 00:42:04,880 --> 00:42:11,880 Bible says, whether that's some of it or all of it, that you're going to hell. 716 00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:12,880 That's not how God works. 717 00:42:12,880 --> 00:42:16,080 That's, that's how God works at all. 718 00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:21,760 In fact, the character of God is so merciful that he lets people keep on sinning and he 719 00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:24,240 forgives them and wants them to do better. 720 00:42:24,240 --> 00:42:28,080 And that's part of the reason I have the beliefs I do in the way that's the way I understand 721 00:42:28,080 --> 00:42:29,080 God. 722 00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:32,920 And it's interesting that this essentially religious family doesn't see that or doesn't 723 00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:36,680 see the graciousness and the love and the mercy of God. 724 00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:44,600 And yet this well learned girl from an unreligious family, she sees that in the service and in 725 00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:51,000 in the message that's being shared when she goes and visits with the family. 726 00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:52,000 And I think that's pretty interesting. 727 00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,760 And I don't quite know what that means, but it's interesting. 728 00:42:54,760 --> 00:43:00,440 And it creates a very interesting touch point later that like Jess is worried that Leslie 729 00:43:00,440 --> 00:43:03,640 might be burning in hell, which is an awful thought. 730 00:43:03,640 --> 00:43:07,960 And his father assures him that like, you know, like he's like, where did you hear that 731 00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:08,960 from? 732 00:43:08,960 --> 00:43:12,560 Like there's no way God is going to send a little girl to hell to burn because you know, 733 00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:14,680 whatever, for any reason, really. 734 00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:16,720 And I believe that's true. 735 00:43:16,720 --> 00:43:17,720 I believe that's true. 736 00:43:17,720 --> 00:43:20,540 I believe that's right. 737 00:43:20,540 --> 00:43:22,480 And that's a meaningful, hopeful, beautiful message. 738 00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:25,440 And that's that's part of it. 739 00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:30,080 So and you can take that from being a fundamentalist religious person, or you can take that as 740 00:43:30,080 --> 00:43:35,560 a secular person who doesn't really believe in the stuff kind of like Leslie and her family. 741 00:43:35,560 --> 00:43:40,080 But you can still see that and feel that message of hope and that message of mercy and grace. 742 00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:42,320 And it's it's beautiful. 743 00:43:42,320 --> 00:43:46,560 So I think I've reached the point where I have nothing more to say about this book except 744 00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:47,560 to laud it. 745 00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:52,020 And other than suggesting that you read it, I don't have anything to say. 746 00:43:52,020 --> 00:43:55,800 So if you have anything to say, I'd love to hear it. 747 00:43:55,800 --> 00:43:59,960 You can leave comments wherever you find this post. 748 00:43:59,960 --> 00:44:04,760 Get me go over to MJMullinios.com and you can find the post for this episode and leave 749 00:44:04,760 --> 00:44:06,300 notes after the fact. 750 00:44:06,300 --> 00:44:09,800 Or hopefully you're one of the people who got comments in before I ended the episode 751 00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,880 and I include them coming up next. 752 00:44:13,880 --> 00:44:18,680 Now this endeavor of Fortress Fiction and Story Over Everything kind of story over everything 753 00:44:18,680 --> 00:44:20,920 paused for a while, like a couple of months. 754 00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:25,320 And then I came back with a vengeance to do Fortress Fiction, among other things. 755 00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:29,440 And I do want to invite from here on out at the end of the book, I'm going at the end 756 00:44:29,440 --> 00:44:34,000 of the book chat, I'm going to tell you what book I'll be reading next. 757 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:37,780 And I want to invite people to make comments on those or on the upcoming book. 758 00:44:37,780 --> 00:44:43,140 So if you can get it from Cloud Library, everything is on Audible on my list for sure. 759 00:44:43,140 --> 00:44:47,600 But if you can get it from Cloud Library or some other legal and free source, I suggest 760 00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:50,720 you do that. 761 00:44:50,720 --> 00:44:58,320 So Bridge of Terabithia is classified by me as modern middle grade. 762 00:44:58,320 --> 00:44:59,320 Modern middle grade. 763 00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:03,240 So the next book will be a classic middle grade book because that's the pattern. 764 00:45:03,240 --> 00:45:06,840 It's going to be Little Women by Louisa Mae Alcott, which was published apparently in 765 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:07,840 1868. 766 00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:12,760 It's a coming of age story about the four March sisters during the Civil War era. 767 00:45:12,760 --> 00:45:14,680 So that should be interesting. 768 00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:19,980 I've seen, I've never seen an entire Little Women movie from start to finish. 769 00:45:19,980 --> 00:45:22,440 And I've never even tried to read one of the books. 770 00:45:22,440 --> 00:45:27,960 So I'll be reading an interesting, I guess you could say that Bridge of Terabithia is 771 00:45:27,960 --> 00:45:33,600 a coming of age story written by a woman about a boy, mostly. 772 00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:39,720 And well then Little Women is going to be a coming of age story written about four girls 773 00:45:39,720 --> 00:45:41,200 by a woman. 774 00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:44,360 And it'll be interesting. 775 00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:48,860 They're about a hundred years, like 90 years apart from each other when they were created 776 00:45:48,860 --> 00:45:49,960 and released. 777 00:45:49,960 --> 00:45:51,480 So that'll be interesting. 778 00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:54,800 And we'll see how well I like that. 779 00:45:54,800 --> 00:46:00,880 And again, I invite you to make comments on the book as well because it's a classic. 780 00:46:00,880 --> 00:46:05,200 My eldest read it and loved it, so I'm looking forward to it. 781 00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:06,200 It should be interesting. 782 00:46:06,200 --> 00:46:07,200 I like Jane Austen. 783 00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:10,320 I hope you enjoyed that. 784 00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:11,920 Subscribe to keep up with me. 785 00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:14,600 Like and share to help me reach more people like you. 786 00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:18,020 And go to MJMunoz.com to find your next favorite thing. 787 00:46:18,020 --> 00:46:20,240 And don't forget to let your voice be heard. 788 00:46:20,240 --> 00:46:23,560 Stories are always better when you're part of the conversation. 789 00:46:23,560 --> 00:46:25,200 Until next time, be well. 790 00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:27,820 This is MJ signing out. 791 00:46:27,820 --> 00:46:31,480 This has been a Story Over Everything production.