Which Reminds Me

I am suddenly reminded of a book that I formerly owned, the autobiography of Madame Guyon, which was a gift to me from Susie Stewart. I am, generally speaking, a quiet person and Jeanne is an advocate of Quietism, a religious movement of nearly medieval origins, and my middle name is Jean so I would really be interested in reading this book which was given to me as some type of birthday present at maybe age 15. Such is the somewhat irrational logic of Susie. I do not recall getting past the first chapter of this somewhat dreary book. Sorry but this type of mysticism did not interest me. French religiosity is so utterly depressing. Is it any wonder that my ancestors escaped the stifling religious oppression of Europe by moving to America? Is it no wonder that I probably got rid of this book a long time ago. I would not want some bizarre French mystics rifling through my bookshelves. Even if Madame Guyon did have something of interest to say, I would not want it to be coming from the French. I did rather enjoy the English-language articles of Mrs. Baker, which I read recently. Interestingly, she often references Madame Guyon in her long since out-of-print newsletter, but Mrs. Baker, who lived in Rochester, N.Y., died in 1915 and I know of no other Pentecostal writer referencing such dreary dull French sources. Anyway, I am not aware of any connection between my family and the Rochester institution of which I was blissfully ignorant and unaware until recently. So just because this book was on my bookshelf in high school, that did not mean that I got very far into it.