Stitches

Stitches by Anne LaMott              Audio Book: 1 hour, 47 minutes      Hardback Book:   112 pages               

Anne LaMott talks about a lot of sad things in this book.    She questions, “Why?”   Why bad things happen.   Why do children get shot at school?   Why good people die and sometimes die very young?   Why are there Hurricanes and Tsunamis?    Why do Polar bears have to die on blocks of ice that break off and float out to sea because of global warming?   Lots of other questions she brings up, too.   She likens the bad things we have to experience in life as part of the thread and stitches in the tapestry that becomes our lives.    She waxes almost Buddhist at times though her belief seems to be Christianity.   A bit fringe pagan at times, too.    It is all part of wrestling with thoughts and ideas, reality and pain.    She talks about one of her best friends who died at age 37 leaving her daughter to grow up without a mother.   She talked about sorting through her friends things after the funeral with the friend’s daughter.    She claimed an old well worn blouse that belonged to her friend.   She wore it many times in remembrance   and once while on vacation on a beach wishing that her friend could see what she was seeing, in her sorrow she was going to cut it up and throw the pieces of the blouse into the ocean, but, then she thought better of it and clung to it and still wears it.   It is part of the memory of happy times and is a bright red thread in the tapestry of her younger years and the joy it represents is not something she wants to let go of.      She finds life is a balance, everything has its place for a reason in our lives.    There are lessons to be learned, there are times when we need to stop what we are doing and pay attention and sometimes the things that slow us down and open our eyes to what is going on happens to be sorrowful for us or for someone we need to reach out to.   She is an interesting writer and she is so like a friend of mine from highschool it is uncanny.   I cannot read Anne LaMott’s writing without thinking of Kim, the gal she so reminds me of.   The way she runs hot and cold, the twist of her thoughts, how she relates her emotions.    A quick read, she is always funny and witty and is very insightful in relating her concepts, her stories, and her admissions of her own flaws.    Another good read.