Traveling light

That's the name of quite an interesting book by Katrina Kittle. It comes from a quote by Juvenal "Travel light and you can sing in the robber's face!" It's a book about Summer whose brother Todd is dying of AIDS. It very gracefully and sensitively explores topics like love, death, prejudice against homosexuality, unfulfilled dreams, the utter hopelessness of living with and dying of AIDS, etc. Heavy themes, dealt with so beautifully, it had me crying and smiling all at once. Here's what I mean..the first line of the book is "I woke and wondered if my brother was dead; gone before I could keep my promise. " How can that not shake you?!
I read this book a while ago, but I was reminded of it because I am working on an assignment for a core Biopsychology class, on HIV-AIDS and taking a "biopsychosocial perspective". Basically the theme is that everything is inter-related. I am mentally contrasting this dry assignment with medication names and article citations, to what I learned from reading Kittle's book - I guess it's the difference between getting an education and getting educated!