Anne Lamott preaches to her choir in 鈥楽omehow: Thoughts on Love鈥�
Anne Lamott, a self-declared 鈥渟piritual ATM,鈥� has long been on a mission to uplift people鈥檚 spirits. Her warm personal essays dispense insights into grace, mercy, hope, and faith by combining the profound with the profane, depth with deprecation, and gratitude with gripes.聽
鈥淪omehow: Thoughts on Love,鈥� Lamott鈥檚 20th book, published to coincide with her 70th birthday, celebrates the many forms love can take, and the many ways it can buttress and transform us.聽
Lamott spouts aphorisms the way whales spout water. A sea spray of examples punctuate this book: 鈥淟ove is a root system.鈥� 鈥淟ove is compassion.鈥� 鈥淟ove is what our soul is made of, and for.鈥� 鈥淭he longest twenty inches on Earth are from the brain to the heart.鈥� 鈥淲armth is love in its plainest clothing.鈥� 鈥淟ove is why we have hope.鈥� 鈥淟ove is a windbreaker.鈥澛�
In 鈥淪omehow,鈥� these one-liners often sound like platitudes, the stuff of greeting cards. Lamott is preaching not just to the choir but to herself 鈥� bucking herself up when she feels she is not living up to the person she鈥檇 like to be. By exposing her own foibles, she hopes to assure readers that they are not alone, and to inspire better behavior in everyone.聽 聽
Lamott, who has been gratefully sober and a devout 海角大神 since 1986, thanks to Alcoholics Anonymous and her supportive church community, is ever on the prowl for guidelines about how to live best. As her book titles attest, she likes to share the benefit of her experiences: 鈥淏ird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life鈥� (still my favorite 30 years after its publication); 鈥淥perating Instructions: A Journal of My Son鈥檚 First Year鈥�; 鈥淪titches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair.鈥澛�
In 鈥淪omehow,鈥� Lamott asks, 鈥淲hat can I leave my son and grandson by way of general instructions for when I am gone?鈥� Many of the lessons she鈥檚 learned over the years are destined for her 鈥渟wag bag of spiritual truth.鈥� Among them: 鈥淏e a helper, and dance.鈥� Surely, her family members, like her readers, have heard much of this before.
Self-criticism factors into many of Lamott鈥檚 anecdotes. She makes fun of how she must appear to a man experiencing homelessness when she presses a bag of toiletries and sundries on him. The deacons in her church chose items for the bags that they thought an unsheltered person would need, including toothpaste and body wash.聽The man, perhaps to get this overzealous church lady to leave him be, finally accepts the socks and hands back the rest.聽聽
"We humans screw up; that is our nature,鈥� Lamott writes. She confesses that she has spent a lifetime struggling 鈥渨ith equal parts bad self-esteem and grandiosity鈥� and trying to override her tendency toward 鈥渟ecret derisive judgment鈥� 鈥� inculcated, along with self-promotion and perfectionism, in her childhood.
Lamott cops to her mistakes. She made a huge one on Twitter in 2015, when she tweeted insensitive comments about Caitlyn Jenner, who was then the world鈥檚 most famous transgender person. Lamott was branded a bigot on social media.聽
Even after her mortified apologies, those tweets came back to bite her recently when she was pulled as a college commencement speaker. Lamott confesses that this triggered a reaction she鈥檚 also not proud of: 鈥渧ictimized self-righteousness.鈥�
What she learned from that experience is to go to 鈥渢he launch code when under attack: gratitude, chores, chocolate, service, breath, nature.鈥� She reminds us that regaining one鈥檚 self-respect is 鈥渁n inside job,鈥� and that 鈥済race in its guise as spiritual WD-40鈥� will usually work its wonders. But, she adds, 鈥渕y experience is that grace bats last.鈥澛�
That chocolate and 鈥渟piritual WD-40鈥� are classic Lamott. So, too, is her penchant for sticking out her neck. Ever irreverent in her reverence, she is sure to delight some readers and irritate others with her occasional profanities and lines like, 鈥淟ife delivers the unbelievable so often that you might as well believe.鈥澛犅�
鈥淪omehow鈥� is not Lamott at her best. But however familiar the platitudes, few will disagree with the commencement-worthy reminders that 鈥渟erving others is where we often find happiness,鈥� or that 鈥渢o have loving feelings, do loving things.鈥澛�
