March, 2010

Mark,

I am reading The Book of Mev through Dr. Bergman’s senior seminar class at Creighton University. I am incredibly inspired. Thank you for sharing Mev’s story, your story, and the story of so many poor and marginalized that have a voice through your book. The Book of Mev has put words to so many unspoken thoughts and ideas in my heart through Mev’s example and the examples of others that you both came into contact with.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing a marvelous testament of a person who lived out ‘faith that does justice’, and showed us how to love in a deeply real way.

Paz,

Catherine Keating

Senior at Creighton University

by Sara Rendell

I am not sure why, but when I finished reading The Book of Mev, I hugged it.

Maybe my body wanted to be closer to tangible truth.

Maybe I was trying to express my gratitude to Mev and Dr. Chmiel for providing me with an example of pure love; not just in their intertwined spider-web of each other, but also in the way they felt with and fought for the poor.

Maybe I needed to acknowledge that The Book of Mev is more than a book of something; it breaths, cries, moans, and laughs.

I think my hug was a “thank you” for Dr. Chmiel’s honesty in revealing Mev and for Mev’s honesty in her face, gestures, words, and vitality. . . A thank you for a candid depiction of what grief is and does; a thank you for a view of my professor, who seems to draw from an internal fountain of love and understanding, as a human being. A view of him not always knowing how to help Mev or even himself, and not finding the strength to breathe in and out—to be serene while riding a malfunctioning roller coaster.

I think I hugged the book because it is Dr. Chmiel’s choice to transcend his suffering—so unfair, vicious, brutal . . .etc. and to reach out to people as a catalyst for the recognition of human suffering.

I think it was because The Book of Mev was already hugging me that I hugged back.

–Sara is a sophomore at Saint Louis University.

Mark,

I am a senior at Creighton University studying Justice and Peace Studies. I just finished The Book of Mev. It was a most brilliant, touching, and motivating read! One of my favorite books I have ever read. Mev was truly an amazing individual whom we could all emulate for the better. The struggle for social justice is embodied in Mev and inspires me to carry on with austerity and determination. Thank you for sharing your story with such passion and fortitude. The layout and depth of the story is beautiful.

Mev and her work were particularly touching because I am a brain tumor survivor. I was recently at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN for a check-up. I was reading The Book of Mev, and while waiting to hear the results of my MRI scan, I came upon the page(s) where Mev was diagnosed and given her prognosis. It gave me goosebumps.

Thank you, Mark, for your work. If you are ever in Omaha, speaking or visiting Dr. Bergman, let me know. I would love chat over coffee.

Be well,

Sean Kenney