Ask anyone which makes more sense, listening to logic or listening to your heart, and the vast majority will tell you that logic wins. When you have a decision to make, if you create a spreadsheet, make a pro-con list, and seek advice from friends and family, you will make the best decision for you. Listen to your heart, on the other hand, and you're bound to emotionalize and sentimentalize the issue, leading to poor decisions.
Nicholas Sparks, in A Walk to Remember, sets out to debunk this theory. In this novel, Sparks shows us that the best decisions — the ones that matter the most in our lives — are best made by listening to your heart. Landon Carter, the protagonist, has been listening to his mind for years. He has known Jamie Sullivan all his life, and his "logic" tells him that she's nothing special — in fact, that she's rather strange. Because she carries a Bible with her all the time, she must be a religious fanatic. Because she's nice to everyone, she must be boring and one-dimensional. Because she helps the less fortunate, she must be overly sentimental. Because she's plain and wears dowdy clothing, she must be someone to avoid. And, later, because she is dying, she must be beyond anyone's help.
Landon struggles as he moves from someone who thinks to someone who feels. Thinking through issues involves a rather simple procedure: Gather the facts, review them, and make a decision based on those facts. For example, Jamie carries a Bible with her everywhere, and she's the minister's daughter. Those are the facts. A review of those facts suggests that she clings to her faith in an unhealthy way, unable to pull herself away from her Bible studies for even a few hours. People who are overly zealous about their religious beliefs tend to be too intense and, therefore, difficult to spend time with. For those reasons, Jamie is someone to avoid because she must be a religious fanatic.
