Reflections 5/16/2020: I just finished reading Ernest Hemingway’s “Islands in the Stream.” Thought a little classical literature would up my IQ a bit. Not sure it accomplished that, but it definitely depressed me. Everything centered around hopelessness that drove the characters to constant drunkenness! Seemed like 80% of the book was intoxicated dialogue about nothingness. Broke my heart. I wanted to interpose myself into the bar scenes and tell Thomas Hudson (the protagonist), that God loved him and Jesus had a whole different take on life that would give him true meaning and purpose! Life wasn’t pointless. Like Hemingway himself, Thomas Hudson seemed to have a destructive death wish that drove him to put himself in harm’s way. Sadly, Hemingway’s manic depression eventually drove him to end his own life at the barrel of a shotgun. How I wish SOMEONE could have helped him discover God’s love for him, that would have freed him from the demons that drove him to extremes. Lord, help me to be sensitive to these demons in others and speak up about “the hope that is within me” because of You. My IQ may not have gone up from this book, but my HQ (Heart Quotient) sure did.