Reading Room

Patience: A Gay Man’s Virtue
By Jed La Lumiere
FriesenPress
352 pgs; $39.99

This book is not a social work book per se, but it is a refreshing and humorous read for social workers and all human services professionals interested in social justice issues. A journey through life, while riding a roller coaster of emotion, Patience: A Gay Man’s Virtue is the light-hearted and engaging story of one man’s triumph over hatred and bigotry. Inviting the reader to walk alongside him through a world that is anything but fair, this book speaks to the trials, tribulations, and successes that come with growing up as a minority in a world that is not quite ready to accept all people as they are.

"What I have learned in my short three-ish decades of life on this earth is that the world is not tolerant of many things and people, and as individuals, we all need to work on that. Ask anyone who has ever been touched by racism, prejudice, hate crimes, bigotry, etc … and by ‘anyone’ you will soon realize I mean ‘everyone.’ Everyone has been a recipient of negative human interactions based on some personal attribute," says La Lumiere.

“The book is not written just for the gay community,” adds La Lumiere, “but for any person who is a part of some community. Through life lessons and humorous stories, Patience: A Gay Man’s Virtue, will hopefully reach many people and in doing so teach them to laugh, to think a bit, to feel more comfortable in their own skin, and to relax in the world around them. After all, we’re all linked somehow, and when more of us are relaxed the better off we are as a community.”