Excerpt from A Journal for Jordan
PAGE 6
Listen to your first thought. You will figure this out on your own. Never second-guess yourself. When your heart is in the right place, always go with your first thought. Work hard at things and follow your instinct. Since you were born, you have always been alert. That means you will be very perceptive about things. Believe God and trust yourself. Keep the faith, Jordan. You will be fine.
Your dad wanted so badly for you to know him that he revealed himself in the journal in a way he rarely did in person. He told you things about himself that I never knew. He wrote that he wanted to see the Great Wall of China and to take guitar lessons. He went into detail about his love of art, his religious faith, and his childhood in Cleveland. I laughed as I pictured my soldier wearing stack-heeled shoes and bell-bottom pants in junior high school.
My favorite stack-heeled shoes were bought from a shoe store called Thom McCann. They were black patent leather with a suede heel. Now Grandma King would always say stack-heeled shoes were no good for your back. I guess I had to learn the hard way. I was walking downtown and glanced over at my reflection in a department store window. I was walking hunched like an old man. I had to throw them away.
Your dad wanted so badly for you to know him that he revealed himself in the journal in a way he rarely did in person. He told you things about himself that I never knew. He wrote that he wanted to see the Great Wall of China and to take guitar lessons. He went into detail about his love of art, his religious faith, and his childhood in Cleveland. I laughed as I pictured my soldier wearing stack-heeled shoes and bell-bottom pants in junior high school.
My favorite stack-heeled shoes were bought from a shoe store called Thom McCann. They were black patent leather with a suede heel. Now Grandma King would always say stack-heeled shoes were no good for your back. I guess I had to learn the hard way. I was walking downtown and glanced over at my reflection in a department store window. I was walking hunched like an old man. I had to throw them away.
Excerpted from A Journal for Jordan by Dana Canedy, Pulitzer Prize winner and senior editor for The New York Times. Copyright © 2008 by Dana Canedy. Excerpted by permission of Crown, a division of Random House, Inc.
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