Traveling Mercies

Posted Mon Nov 7, 2005 in Books

I finished reading RealLivePreacher.com for the second time yesterday morning. During the quiet part of the morning, I sat in my computer chair, listening to music, reading, and drinking coffee. (Speaking of coffee, mine should be nearly ready now.) The Preacher’s book held up well on the second read and I picked up a couple things I missed the first time through. I believe the work is sufficiently solid to stand another reading, at least. While there are some hard stories in RealLivePreacher.com, there is also a larger sense of hope, and then faith that things will turn out OK. And if things don’t turn out as hoped, then the faith is there that such will turn out for the better in the bigger picture. That is, the bigger picture that we, as finite humans, cannot see¹.

A few weeks ago (months?), Wife snagged a copy of Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies from the public library, read it, and recommended it to me. I know a little of Lamott’s writing, having been told that Bird-by-bird is an excellent book. I wanted to read it, but couldn’t at the time.

Digression: I sometimes have trouble reading. I cannot muster the mental energy required to invest myself in the process. I think that struggle for mental/emotional energy is part of my depression. I’ve learned that it comes and goes, though, and that during the better times I can read.

A few weeks ago we found a copy of Traveling Mercies at the used book store and bought it. I love used book stores and can spend hours browsing in them, reading bits and pieces of books I pick up from the shelf, and then just basking in the feel, the sight, and the smell of all those words.

I started reading Traveling Mercies yesterday and read off and on a good part of the day, drinking coffee and listening to music, sitting in my computer chair. Anne Lamott is an honest writer and the truth she tells of her life experience is blunt to the point of brutality. I am an empath² and felt her pain and her struggle as she dealt with some hard times in her early life. The first part of the book is hard, but it’s also honest.

I found a quote that I like. Lamott (Traveling Mercies, p. 43) asks a preacher, “What does it mean to be saved?”

I guess it’s like discovering you’re on the shelf of a pawnshop, dusty and forgotten and maybe not worth very much. But Jesus comes in and tells the pawnbroker, “I’ll take her place on the shelf. Let her go outside again.”

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the book. While real life doesn’t always turn out tidy like made-up stories do (or at least can), I think she’s leading the reader to a better place, a place she’s found where many of her demons are put behind her. I’m looking forward to learning how she discovers that place and where it is, for her.

¹I believe there is a bigger picture.

²Empath: noun (chiefly in science fiction) a person with the paranormal ability to apprehend the mental or emotional state of another individual. Hmm… I’m not an empath in the paranormal sense of the word. No, I think I just pay attention and relate emotionally to those around me.