Remember when you dedicate your book to me, Michelle has TWO L's.

I raided the book shop yesterday.  This is where I can be found on days that I have a few quiet hours, in the mom and pop book shop in Newtown. I ended up with a stack for myself, and a stack for the kids, as usual. And mine was a random stack, as it always is. A cookbook, of course, a journal, a Sookie Stackhouse novel (can't be all serious reads!) and a book called “Learning from the Heart”, which says it’s a lesson on living, loving and listening. Compassion, more than anything I think. I had never heard of the book, though I was very familiar with the writer, he’s a regular contributor to NPR. But once I flipped it open, I did what I always do: I read the book dedication. And tonight at dinner, I passed it to my daughter and had her read it because I found it to be the most moving dedication I’ve ever read. She read it, gave me her feedback (she agreed with me) and promptly told me I was weird for reading the dedication.  I asked, astounded, why she would say that. It’s always one of my favorite parts. She answered that it was weird (there’s that word again!) and it wasn’t like the book was dedicated to me. Well, no. Not this one, at least. Maybe there would be someday?

But more so, what I realized is that I have always wanted to be a writer.  And I know this because I have written and rewritten my book dedication in my mind a thousand times. I thought this was something everyone did, but apparently not.  Kind of like the question I ask almost everyone, “If you had a boat, what would you name it?” I think I ask that because it’s secret code for finding other day dreamers like me.  You envision yourself on a beautiful ocean sailing away and obviously, the boat HAS to have a name or the day dream is just…off and inaccurate.  Mine, not shockingly at all, is “Wanderlust”.

Anyway, focus Michelle. Book dedications.  Some of them have been funny, many of them obscure and often cryptic. Some of them are secret messages to loved ones that didn’t want their names shouted from the rooftops in adoration. For the record, I do. So when you do write a book, dear reader, you spell my last name WIRE. And Michelle has TWO L’s.  And a note about my wit and intelligence (and beauty!) would be fab.  Okay, thanks.

 Ayn Rand dedicated Atlas Shrugged to her husband and her lover. Which, I may add, were two different men.  F. Scott Fitzgerald dedicated his “Once again, to Zelda”, despite the fact that during the writing period he had virtually driven her to insanity. Guess he owed her something!  Ironically, the book “End of the Affair” was dedicated to the author’s mistress.  Subtle.

Without further ado, here is the dedication that began it all, from “Learning from the Heart”, by Daniel Gottlieb.

I dedicate this book to my precious daughters, Alison and Debra.

Your births opened my heart to a lifetime of love and devotion.

I have watched you crawl and walk and fall in love and rebel. I’ve watched you get hurt and suffer- and then heal. With delight and awe I have watched your bodies, your minds, and your souls develop.

Now I watch you love whom you love with grace and compassion, devoting yourselves to making the world more just for those who need justice.

We have brought each other great love and blessings. In the past, your lives were in my hands and that brought me joy. In the future, my life will be in your hands and that brings me peace.

 

Here’s your homework, reader. Dedicate your book. If you were to write one (even if you do not intend to do so) who would be so dear and influential to you that they would win that page? Then, once you decide, you should tell them. How cool would that be to know that you deserve such an honor?  Better yet, write it and mail it. Here's mine:

For my loves: past, present and enduring.  My family and my children, the greatest of them all.