Anne Lamott: Why Writing Matters
"So why does writing matter, again?" they ask.
Because of the spirit, I say.
Because of the heart.
Writing and reading decreases our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose or truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.
(Bird by Bird, p.237)
Anne Lamott is a writer who truly believes the words she has written above. In each book she has penned, there are continual, valuable snapshots into life's meanings meshed with her own humorous reflections which always leave me begging for more. I've yet to read a book by Ms. Lamott which hasn't had my eyes glued and highlighter, in hand, ready. Her comments about life's daily activities alone keep me riveted. She is a true storyteller, truth being at the core of what she writes.
Anne Lamott was born in 1954 in San Francisco and now continues to reside nearby in northern California with her son, Sam. Anne Lamott's recovery from alcoholism and drug abuse has been at the heart of much of her writing, while she also specializes in candid, funny non-fiction books which center around motherhood, faith and also her continual fight for sobriety.
I first came across Anne Lamott when I was at the very end of my second pregnancy. I had no illusions at this point about motherhood, as my girls were only 14 months apart. I was knee deep in diapers and pacifiers and those annoyingly loud toys that sing and chant the alphabet while you cringe and try and make it through yet another day in the baby fortress of your home. Baby Mozart and Teletubbies ruled the day between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m., right before lunch and nap, entertaining 15 month old Sophia, while offering me that precious break during which I finally found the time to nurse peacefully my new daughter, Eden. The joy of nursing comfortably in a quiet room not only allowed me some peace, but finally, a chance to get outside of my head and into a book. If I were lucky, I could nurse for a good thirty minutes and get at least five chapters or more under my belt. I lived for those solitary moments.
On a chance outing to the small used book store in the town I live in, I came across this small and compact, box shaped book in indigo blue. The title was Operating Instructions and the those words alone had me longing to open it up and read the first pages. It had a picture of a child on the front, and quite an interesting biography of the author in the back. I was instantly drawn to her picture, to the softness of the black and white photo, and the wildness in the dread-locked hair of this very gentle looking woman. Right at that moment, I knew it was a purchase I had to make. Not only did she fit the bill of looking and sounding interesting enough to listen to, (I'm a sucker for visuals), I had finally found a parenting book which looked funny. In fact, I had quite happened upon something that eventually changed the insecure view I had of my own parenting. I embraced it. I was fine, and I was not alone in my feelings.
Anne Lamott offered the first book which gave me what I felt was the true story of what it means to be a new mother. I had read countless non-fiction books/magazines discussing the pros and cons of epidurals and the way to deal with breastfeeding and 101 ways to lose that post baby weight. I had read non-fiction accounts of several women who wrote of what it meant to deal with new motherhood, yet I had never read as convincing an account of what I found in Operating Instructions. Lamott revealed what it meant to discover you are pregnant by a one night stand, face the pregnancy alone, live a very real life trying to make it as a writer, while all the time facing ongoing sobriety and the looming death to cancer of your best friend. This is real life folks. This was what parenting was for me. It was juggling the good and the bad and all of the ups and downs in between. Pregnancy and childrearing are not isolated situations and Anne Lamott was the first writer I had felt who was willing to take the risk to tell it like it is. In Anne's words throughout Operating Instructions, I had found something genuine. I had finally found a non-watered down version of what it means to struggle through pregnancy and babyhood while still facing what life throws at you. After dozens of watered down books, it was refreshing to finally find what I needed.
What amazes me about Lamott is not only her ability to capture real life in her memoir, but her ability to do virtually the same just as fluidly in her other non-fiction essays, her spiritual collective pieces and her fiction. She is the author of the national bestsellers, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, as well as five novels, the most recent(and my personal favorite), Blue Shoe and lastly, her newest book, Plan B, Further Thoughts on Faith. She is witty, compassionate and honest. Her conversational, direct-style brings to the paper a sense of knowing and a growing trust between author and reader. She has inspired within me the desire to want to be a better writer, as she constantly inspires me equally to read more and more. In Bird by Bird, she brings into the light the true meaning of what it means to learn how to be a better writer through being in touch with your own life experiences. Her advice is something I return to again and again. One of my favorite passages is:
"Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious. When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your readers. He or she will recognize his or her life and truth in what you say, in the pictures you have painted, and this decreases the terrible sense of isolation that we have all had too much of."
(Bird by Bird, p.225)
This passage applauds writing as a true teaching, and transforming art. Lamott is the writer who I feel the most drawn to as a woman of spirit and creative drive. She is a woman of depth and experience and you cannot turn a page without realizing that you feel more known than in your reading of the page before. You wonder if each line could actually be getting better and then better, so moving that you find yourself underlining it in bright yellow highlighter and even adding notes in pencil strung throughout the margins. For memory, you think, for reflection.
In the personal essay pieces in the faith based, Traveling Mercies, Lamott writes with such powerful dialogue that you're there with her, in the experience. This quality makes Bird by Bird a book of even more importance. This writer practices what she preaches! She is humble, hilarious and sensitive. In the title story, the idea that things in life may happen for a reason is both inspiring because who hasn't thought of this possibility at one point or another in life? And she addresses this with the candor of a true seeker, and the humor of a comedian.
Anne Lamott is accessible. She is unafraid to reveal parts the parts of herself that so many of us hide in tiny secret boxes of the mind. Her addictions, her fears, grief and joys are always intertwined in her work. In Blue Shoe, Lamott deals with the subjects of abandonment, redemption and salvation while telling a story of mystery and love which both entertains and leaves one seeking more truth in their own every day life. Even in her prose Lamott has an easy time of subtly connecting the spiritual to the every day. You can't help but see so many parts of herself and her personality in all of her writing. She exudes a quality which travels throughout her works. An honest soul with an artistic ability to connect, her books will leave you nothing less than surprised and filled with laughter.