“The soul is a pile of moist manure, and only by tilling and shoveling might you turn it into gold.” (28) This is the idea that Laura’s mother embedded into Laura’s brain. Laura’s mother is someone very influential to Laura. It is peculiar to me that they would compare the soul to manure. I have never heard anyone compare it to such a thing. Laura believed in this quote very much so. Despite her disease Laura worked very hard to be a great ice skater.

There was a part of the reading in which I was rather confused. At the bottom of page 28, continuing on page 29 Laura mentions seeing a cardinal. Then she proceeds in personifying the cardinal. I’m not sure what the cardinal was referring to or the significance of the cardinal.