We are each other's holding bread

August 24, 2015 1:26 PM

Anne Lamott on being young, being old, and feeling safe. [SLFacebook]
posted by Mchelly (12 comments total)

I love her writing so much I can't stand it sometimes.
posted by blucevalo at 1:39 PM on August 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Me too!
posted by vitabellosi at 1:49 PM on August 24, 2015

Me too!

(That was going to be my post no matter what others had already posted.)
posted by vitabellosi at 1:51 PM on August 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

For those interested in Lamott on spirituality: The Jesuit Rec Room w/ Anne Lamott. It's a 45-minute conversation with Lamott and her friend Fr. Tom Weston, S.J. and they are reflective, funny, and thoughtful.
posted by MonkeyToes at 1:59 PM on August 24, 2015 [4 favorites]

Me too! Her words bang on my soul like few others' words can.

I also can't believe Sam's kid is 6 already.
posted by kimberussell at 3:08 PM on August 24, 2015

I see Annie all the time in the market. Very distinctive, with the blonde dreadlocks. I moved her piano once.
posted by Repack Rider at 3:55 PM on August 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've always loved Anne LaMott's writing. It's a great reminder that more folks NEED to remember: she's an evangelical Christian, but NOT a fundamentalist, not for a moment (like me). This is a distinction more Metafites need to understand more clearly too. There are big time differences.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 4:47 PM on August 24, 2015 [5 favorites]

Good Lord, when I started reading Lamott's writing regularly, Sam was the kid. It's been a long time since I took her up.
posted by Countess Elena at 5:36 PM on August 24, 2015

When she says that "Hello" is the fourth great prayer, she's alluding to her book Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.
posted by straight at 7:45 PM on August 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

I may have well and truly broken with my evangelical Christian upbringing, but Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird has to be one of the best writing books I've ever read. I should really make it a priority to read more of her published writing instead of just stalking her on Facebook.
posted by Catenation at 10:47 PM on August 24, 2015

Cannot stand Lamott. It's interesting to me to see the pile on of love for her here; what appeals to some is the thing that turns others off. I have always felt her writing cringe-worthy and her writing about her child almost like a breach of trust. It seemed to me she used her spirituality to stand up on a table and shout, "Look at me, I am a christian AND have dreadlocks! Look at how cool and edgy I am."

But perhaps it says more about me and my jaded nature than anything about her at all.
posted by Belle O'Cosity at 7:04 AM on August 25, 2015

Well she has written that she has dreads because her hair is naturally very curly and it's the only style that works for her; she waited a long time to get them done. She tells a terrible story about her dad's supposedly liberal friends making racist jokes about her hair when she was little (the assumption that she "got it" from a black person in her family tree, but said much less nicely). Unless she is lying about all of that she definitely did not do it for "edginess."

I can see why she sets some people off, and sometimes, she is too much for me (not being a Christian anymore, what works for her does not work for me). Also I think writing from a religious POV can sometimes make you feel compelled to draw lessons from things, which means oversimplification of real life, which does not lend itself well to lessons.

I think she does best when she talks about her own failures and weaknesses instead, or frustrations, or fears, because these are things that do ring true to everyone. I tend to skip over the more religious bits and enjoy those.
posted by emjaybee at 7:21 AM on August 25, 2015 [2 favorites]