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Mar. 9th, 2004
Operating Instructions
Mar. 9th, 2004 11:28 amI’m reading Anne Lamott’s Operating Instructions and I’m deeply impressed. The book is a chronicle of her first year as a single mother (who also happens to be an author/recovering addict/Christian/cynic) and all that it entails. She mentions being overwhelmed with so much love that she can’t move and within the same chapter wanting to throw her kid against the wall. It seems very real, very honest, and not the least bit preachy or self-aggrandizing. I recommend it to everyone, especially to those of you with bebes (both here and on the way).
Here are some of the quotes that I found particularly note-worthy.
"I had so many variations on the theme of low self-esteem, with conceitedness marbled in, the classic egomaniac with an inferiority complex. Or as Peg once put it, the piece of shit around which the world revolves."
"Still when I feel myself coming apart like a two-dollar watch, it helps me beyond words to look at myself through the eyes of [the Virgin] Mary, totally adoring and gentle, instead of the through the critical eyes of the men at the Belvedere Tennis Club, which is how I’ve looked at myself nearly all my life.
I don’t think the men at the Belvedere Tennis Club would look at this big exhausted weepy baggy mentally ill cellulite unit we call Annie Lamott and see a beautiful precious heroic child. But Mary does."
There’s another quote about saying no when you mean no. And how saying yes when you really and truly can commit yourself to the task at hand is one of the most beautiful and generous moments you can have. But damn and hell, I can’t find it again for the life of me.
Here are some of the quotes that I found particularly note-worthy.
"I had so many variations on the theme of low self-esteem, with conceitedness marbled in, the classic egomaniac with an inferiority complex. Or as Peg once put it, the piece of shit around which the world revolves."
"Still when I feel myself coming apart like a two-dollar watch, it helps me beyond words to look at myself through the eyes of [the Virgin] Mary, totally adoring and gentle, instead of the through the critical eyes of the men at the Belvedere Tennis Club, which is how I’ve looked at myself nearly all my life.
I don’t think the men at the Belvedere Tennis Club would look at this big exhausted weepy baggy mentally ill cellulite unit we call Annie Lamott and see a beautiful precious heroic child. But Mary does."
There’s another quote about saying no when you mean no. And how saying yes when you really and truly can commit yourself to the task at hand is one of the most beautiful and generous moments you can have. But damn and hell, I can’t find it again for the life of me.