Kindred Spirits: Anne Lamott

(AKA: "Why I Write This Blog")

I've been reading Anne Lamott's spiritual nonfiction for many years now, and could quite easily quote material from any one of her books that resonates so deeply it is as if somebody were reading my own thoughts- plus she makes me laugh which is always a bonus.

Recently though, I've been reading her 1994 book Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, and I found her chapter called "Writing a Present" spoke to me directly.

You see, as you probably guessed, I'm not "a writer."  I also have no plan, intention, or desire to be "a writer." 

However I've found, I can't not write.

I think there are several reasons for this, but one of them is: I find that writing is one of the ways I can most honestly and authentically connect with others- both intimates and strangers alike.

Reading Bird By Bird, I wondered if Ms. Lamott might feel the same.

In "Writing a Present" she writes:

There was a part of me that believed that my journal could be a gift for others, for single mothers. I couldn't find any books about single parenting when Sam was first born that were funny and sick and therefore true. 

There were some great books on child rearing, but none that made me laugh, and none that went into the dark side, the Seventh-Seal-with-milky-bras part.  They were all so nicey-nice and rational and suggested that surely if you did this or that, the colicky little darling would come around, pull himself or herself together, get a grip.  And this simply wasn't true. 

Having a baby is like suddenly getting the world's worst roommate, like having Janis Joplin with a bad hangover and PMS come stay with you...

I would have felt so relieved if there had been a book written by another mother who admitted that she sometimes wanted to grab her infant by the ankles and swing him over her head like a bolo.  So I went ahead and started writing one myself, as a present, as a kind of road map for other mothers.

Even though I do get a kick out of seeing the list of some of the countries around the globe where people have viewed this blog (e.g. Angola, Italy, Indonesia, Germany, Russia, UAE, Brazil, the Philippines, Ireland, Lebanon, Australia, Venezuela, China, and Sweden, among many others).

At the end of the day, I don't know who reads this blog (for all I know it is just some troll or business person who travels a lot), and I am completely fine with that.

I just like the idea of releasing a set of ideas or meditations out into that universe so that someone, somewhere (in the present or future) who is contemplating some of the same existential awakenings that I am, can have a virtual bookmark to call upon, and maybe, just maybe, they might not feel so alone in their journey.

I also like the idea of having a spiritual memoir of sorts available for my children when the grow up if, when, they might need it- especially if I am not around in person to share these stories myself.

Toward the end of the same chapter, "Writing a Present," Ms. Lamott quotes the prolific writer Toni Morrison who said, "The function of freedom is to free someone else." Ms. Lamott then adds:

If you are no longer wracked or in bondage to a person or a way of life, tell your story. Risk freeing someone else.

May it be so. For you, and for me.