Perhaps you’ve seen Anne Lamott’s Facebook post that went viral over the weekend, in which she lists “every single thing she knows” on the eve of her 61st birthday (which turns out to be fifteen things)? If not, do yourself a favor. Filled with characteristic wit and wisdom, not to mention memorable turns of phrase, it’s a crash course in effective communication, especially in regards to Christianity. In fact, it’s enough to make a person wonder: why is it that so many of the most compelling religious voices these days belong to women in recovery? It’s almost uncanny. Whatever the reason, I say bring it on. A few highlights being:
There is almost nothing outside of you that will help in any kind of lasting way, unless you are waiting for an organ. You can’t buy, achieve or date it. This is the most horrible truth…
Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared, even the people who seem to have it more or less together. They are much more like you than you would believe. So try not to compare your insides to their outsides. Also, you can’t save, fix or rescue any of them, or get any of them sober…
Publication and temporary creative successes are something you have to recover from. They kill as many people as not. They will hurt, damage and change you in ways you cannot imagine. The most degraded and sometimes nearly evil men I have known were all writers who’d had bestsellers. Yet, it is also a miracle to get your work published (see #1). Just try to bust yourself gently of the fantasy that publication will heal you, will fill the Swiss cheesey holes. It won’t, it can’t…
Grace: Spiritual WD-40. Water wings. The mystery of grace is that God loves Dick Cheney and me exactly as much as He or She loves your grandchild. Go figure. The movement of grace is what changes us, heals us and our world. To summon grace, say, “Help!” And then buckle up. Grace won’t look like Casper the Friendly Ghost, but the phone will ring, or the mail will come, and then against all odds, you will get your sense of humor about yourself back. Laughter really is carbonated holiness, even if you are sick of me saying it…
Death. Wow. So f-ing hard to bear, when the few people you cannot live without die. You will never get over these losses, and are not supposed to. We Christians like to think death is a major change of address, but in any case, the person will live fully again in your heart, at some point, and make you smile at the MOST inappropriate times. But their absence will also be a lifelong nightmare of homesickness for you. All truth is a paradox. Grief, friends, time and tears will heal you. Tears will bathe and baptize and hydrate you and the ground on which you walk. The first thing God says to Moses is, “Take off your shoes.” We are on holy ground. Hard to believe, but the truest thing I know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBzuPEf2cNs
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5 responses to “Every Single Thing Anne Lamott Knows”
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so. good.
Love it! (and her) — As I see it she’s part of that magic tri-fecta of current Christian recovery voices: Mary Karr, and Nadia Bolz-Weber being the other two. One Catholic, one Lutheran, and one Presbyterian. I love them individually and as a complimentary whole.
Love her! Only a few things wrong (it seems to me) but a good read. And so glad she made this list.
Everyone needs recovery from something. recoverers are the most honest. Because they’ve had to be.
It’s sad she believes the media’s portrayal of the tea party..
I really don’t want to go down the road of any kind of political back and forth.
I like that Mbird might be one of the few places that people of significantly different political persuasions might cross paths.
I will not explain Annie Lamott’s perspective.
I will say this about my understanding of a political party.
It is not “believing media’s portrayal” of that party. That is overly dismissive of my perspective.
(I will stop at that, and mercifully excise the next 7 paragraphs I have in my head.)