Okay okay, to give you a bit more of an idea of what Blue Like Jazz is like, I shall cram in an idea that I thought was interesting. This is a combination of quotes condenced down to give you the picture:

“What metaphores do we consider when we consider the topic of cancer? … We battle cancer, we fight cancer … basically war metaphores. We fear cancer when actually, most people survive the disease. Because of these words most people feel like they have been thrust into a deadly war … are frightened beyond need … and feel more burdened than they should … essentially effecting their health.

What metaphores do we use when we think of relationships? We value people, we invest in people, people are priceless, a relationship may be bankrupt … all economic metaphore. (Insert light bulb moment here.) We think of love as a commodity and use it like money. If someone is doing something for us, offering us something, then we feel they have value, we feel they are worth something to us. He goes on to apply this to the Church (Christian culture), with love we have withheld affirmation from the people who do not agree with us, but we lavishly finance the ones who do. But love doesn’t work like money. It is not a commodity. When we barter with it, we all lose. When the church does not love its enemies, it fuels their rage. It makes them hate us more.”

After a personal story of realizing his own judgement on someone else and learning to love them, Miller states something about relationships I’ve known for a while … “Nobody will listen to you unless they sense that you like them.”

“There are always two conversations going on. The first is about politics or music or whatever it is our mouths are saying. The other is beneath the surface, on the level of the heart, and I am either communicating that I like (care about) the person I am talking to or not. If both conversations are not true … you are like a person standing there smashing two cymbals together … annoying everybody around you.”