Joseph Gallo

I have no room for books.

And I stored them in my mother's basement.

And now I have to do something with them.

And so one day, I'm driving out to my mother's nursing home, and I pass this used bookstore.

And I think, I'm going to donate them there.

And so I drive back to my mother's house.

I pack up the car, and I take the books to the store.

And the woman who owns the store looks exactly like Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

And she is completely, 100% delighted.

And she's going through the boxes.

She's opening them all up.

And I look down, and I see the copy of Oh Holy Cow.

And I am so emotionally exhausted that I do nothing.

And I let the book go.

And the book, I watch the boxes go to the back of the store and they disappear.

And a ritual begins.

I go to visit my mother in the nursing home, I pass the bookstore, and I think, AJ's book's in there.

I go to the nursing home, I pass the bookstore, I think, AJ's book's in there.

And I realize that the book is starting to take on this amazing power, certainly far more than it ever had when it was in a box in my mother's basement, and I thought of it only once in a great while.

And I realize that the power stems from the fact that my mother is still alive.