#123 Same Kind of Different by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

Here's a story of two men; one, a very wealthy art dealer from Texas and the other a very poor, homeless man from Louisiana. 

The poor man, Denver Moore, grew up on a plantation in Louisiana way past the times when slavery became illegal.  Apparently there are/were many plantations using black labor for cheap (they would never get paid, but were "allowed" to live in shacks on the "man's" land and buy clothes from the man by their labor and they could never get ahead as the "man" had control of the cost of everything and with no education for the modern-day slaves they didn't know any different).

One day Denver Moore got tired of living this lifestyle so took off.  He hopped trains and eventually found himself in Texas.  Along the way he got himself in all kinds of trouble with the law and became very angry and bitter.  I had a hard time reading his thought and entitled behavior the first half of the book.  He felt like he was doing people a favor by allowing them to help him.  He would make comments such as: I will let them shelter me through the night (and so on).  He had way too much joy in conning people out of money, too, because he felt if people had money it was their duty to share it so he was helping them make the "right" choice.  It was so repulsive and disgusting for me to read. 

The wealthy art dealer was married to a very spiritual woman that decided her and her husband were going to start helping out at a homeless shelter.  Well, that's where Denver and Ron met.

They developed a true friendship and Denver's attitude changed tremendously (and so did Ron's).

The woman that brought them together gets diagnosed with terminal cancer and this brings them even closer together.  It was so heart wrenching reading the chapters of cancer as it was all too familiar hearing the terms and rituals and reading the family heartache and such. I will admit, I did shed tears through these chapters.

The book is "Christian Literature" so it does come across preachy at times and to be honest, I felt they over shared some very sacred things which made me uncomfortable and even question them.  Sometimes those sacred times are private because once shared they become less-real and less-sacred.  Although, I am certain Karen would have loved this book.  I was sad she never got to read it as I think she would have really connected to this story, but I am glad I got to read it for her.