brilliance.

the book i'm currently reading, Life of Pi, is both amazing and insightful.
i was skeptical of this book at first, but it's come to be one of my favorites.
the main character, a 16 year old boy named Pi Patel, loves God with his whole heart.
he practices not only Christianity, but also Hinduism and Islam.
when he and his family decide to migrate to Canada from their home in India, the boat sinks and Pi is left on a lifeboat in a very difficult situation.
let's just say, it involves a 500 lb. Bengal tiger.
amidst all of the tragedies Pi faces, he remains focused on God, and never loses hope.
i wanted to share a few excerpts from the book with you.

"It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them- and they leap.
I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if he burst out from the cross, "my GOD, my GOD, why have you forsaken me?"then surely we are also permitted to doubt. But we must move on. To chose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."

"Sometimes my heart was sinking so fast with anger, desolation and weariness, I was afraid it would sink to the very bottom of the Pacific and I would not be able to lift it back up.
At such moments i tried to elevate myself. I would touch the turban I had made with the remnants of my shirt and I would say aloud, "THIS IS GOD'S HAT!"
i would pat my pants and say aloud, "THIS IS GOD'S ATTIRE!"
i would point to the lifeboat and say aloud, "THIS IS GOD'S ARK!"
i would spread my hands wide and say aloud, "THESE ARE GOD'S WIDE ACRES!"
And in this way I would remind myself of creation and of my place in it...
But God's hat was always unravelling.
God's pants were falling apart.
God's ark was a jail.
God's wide acres were slowly killing me.
despair was a heavy blackness that let no light in or out. It was a hell beyond expression. I thank God it always passed. A school of fish appeared around the net or a knot cried to be reknotted. Or I thought of my family, of how they were spared this terrible agony. The blackness would stir and eventually would go away, and God would remain, a shining point of light in my heart.
I would go on loving."