Cormac McCarthy´s The Crossing

“The names of the cerros and the sierras and the deserts exist only on maps. We name them that we do not lose our way. Yet it was because the way was lost to us already that we have made those names. The world cannot be lost. We are the ones. And it is because these names and these coordinates are our own naming that they cannot save us. They cannot find for us the way again.”

Another chilling Cormac McCarthy novel that has completely consumed my thoughts and takes me deeper and deeper with time. The Crossing is the second book in a trilogy, but the trilogy is not written so that you have to read the books in order. This book talks about a 16 year old boy who over 4 years crosses the Mexican border 3 different times on 3 different pursuits. The book challenges the concept of God throughout the book and is full of incredible perserverance when faced with the worst kind of misery. The most thought-provoking part of the book occured for me when the boy encountered a man who lived in a fallen-down church. The man explained to the boy that nothing in life exists without a witness. That means, that without a witness, God would not exist and that is why miracles exist. Miracles are God´s way of being noticed, but sometimes the miracles leaves the “blessed” in dark and hard situations.