On the matter of acknowledgments

Yesterday, my copy of Jay Kirk's Kingdom Under Glass arrived, a book I'll be eagerly delving into later this long weekend.  I've known Jay through much of this book's creation, have been privileged to read a long, early chapter, and have been astonished (and been made grateful) by the research-inspired stories that he tells.  In a few days, once I've finished reading, I'll be able to report on the book here in greater detail.

But for now, let me say this:  I may stand in the minority with this, but I believe that acknowledgments, in books, actually matter.  They tell us something about the person behind the story.  They tell us something about the web work of his or her life.  Jay's acknowledgments, in Kingdom, carry on across four pages, and from every sentence of thanks there leans humility and grace.  There are stories upon stories inside Jay's acknowledgments, and I am lucky to be among those noted.  But mostly I smile at Jay's words for his wife, Julie.  "I would skin a pack of wild dogs for you," he writes at the close of a long paragraph.  The thing is:  I'm pretty sure that he would.