I’m just finishing up Anne Lamott’s book, "Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith." A terrific book and one that another Lamott fan told me about recently when she saw reviews of Lamott books that I had written on my website.
In my previous reads of her books, I was struck by her honesty. This time around, I noticed wonderful metaphors and imagery. Here’s one passage that I particularly like:
"The sun was setting behind a ghost cloud, illuminating it, imposing a circle around us, like a cookie cutter. Eucalyptus trees circled around us, at the edge of the grass, as if holding down the earth, bricks on a picnic tablecloth in the wind."
And Lamott is still at her best when she is truth-telling. The following excerpt is from a college commencement address:
"I bet I’m beginning to make some parents nervous–here I am, bragging of being a dropout, and unemployable, and about to make a pitch for you to follow your creative dreams, when what the parents want is for their children to do well in their field, to make them look good, and maybe also to assemble a tasteful fortune.
But that is not your problem. Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you’re going to live it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it, and find out the truth about who you are."
Read books by good writers and find what rings true for you.
Anne Lamott is one of my all-time favorite writers. She speaks truth with humor – which is a very difficult thing to do. I got hooked with Traveling Mercies – one of my favorite quotes goes something like, “It’s enough to drive Jesus to drink warm gin out of the cat’s dish.” (Some days, that cat dish is looking awfully good ;-))
And, then she did a riff re President Bush that went something like, “I finally realized I have to love him, not have lunch with him.” And so it goes.
Yes, I loved that line about Bush as well. It applies in alot of places.
It reminds me of another distinction that I’ve been making recently–acknowledging vs. embracing, as in “I acknowledge your frustration but I don’t embrace it.”
Thanks for stopping by, Mary.