And so, by circuitous and unpredictable routes, we converge toward midcontinent and meet in Madison, and are at once drawn together, braided and plaited into a friendship. (p. 96)

Welcome back to Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. In this episode, Shari and Rhea continue their discussion of the long-view narrative style of the story’s first person narrator, Larry Morgan. They discuss his generous story telling style, his telling of deep intimacies, and the way they find themselves, at times, so overcome by the quiet beauty of the narrative they could weep. They continue to relate Larry and Sally’s story to their own marriages, and their own younger-self lives. They discuss Larry’s imagined historical telling of Sid and Charity’s meeting and early love: what more is revealed about Larry the narrator, and what Stegner the author gains by this creative narrative technique. They discuss Charity in-depth: her name, its meaning, and how Stegner, through his narrator, is training us in the way of true, charitable and lasting love. They talk about C. S. Lewis. Shari comes up with a fitting Hamilton quote about Sid.

In their next episode, they will be reading through the end of Book One (pp. 142-239)

Here’s a link to Rhea’s excellent reading guide for Crossing to Safety:

Here is the poem by Robert Frost that inspired the story’s title:

I Could Give All To Time by Robert Frost

To Time it never seems that he is braveTo set himself against the peaks of snowTo lay them level with the running wave,Nor is he overjoyed when they lie low,But only grave, contemplative and grave.

What now is inland shall be ocean isle,Then eddies playing round a sunken reefLike the curl at the corner of a smile;And I could share Time’s lack of joy or griefAt such a planetary change of style.

I could give all to Time except – exceptWhat I myself have held. But why declareThe things forbidden that while the Customs sleptI have crossed to Safety with? For I am There,And what I would not part with I have kept.

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