I’ve heard Anne Lamott speak on several podcasts but have never read any of her writing… I stumbled across her TED Talk, 12 Truths From Life And Writing. I enjoyed it and thought you might too! Now I am inspired to read one of her books!
Anne Lamott is a celebrated American writer, known for her humorous, clever and personal stories of life and her faith. She writes on topics from motherhood to her struggles with addiction.
Here’s the bulleted transcription, the full video is below. Let me know what you think!
Always merrymaking,
Emma
Ps. Even with her disclaimer at #1, I have to say that I wholeheartedly disagree with her #5 hahaha. I love dark chocolate so much!
12 Truths From Life And Writing By Anne Lamott
1. The first and truest thing is that all truth is a paradox.
It’s so hard and weird that we sometimes wonder if we’re being punked. It’s filled simultaneously with heartbreaking sweetness and beauty, desperate poverty, floods and babies and acne and Mozart, all swirled together.
2. Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes – including you.
3. There is almost nothing outside of you that will help in any kind of lasting way, unless you’re waiting for an organ.
You can’t buy, achieve or date serenity and peace of mind. We can’t arrange peace or lasting improvement for the people we love most in the world.
4. Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy and scared, even the people who seem to have it most together.
They are much more like you than you would believe, so try not to compare your insides to other people’s outsides. It will only make you worse than you already are.
5. Chocolate with 75% cacao is not actually a food.
6. Writing
Every writer you know writes really terrible first drafts, but they keep their butt in the chair. That’s the secret of life. That’s probably the main difference between you and them. They just do it.
7. Publication and temporary creative successes are something you have to recover from.
They kill as many people as not. Try to bust yourself gently of the fantasy that publication will heal you, that it will fill the Swiss-cheesy holes inside of you. It can’t. It won’t. But writing can. So can singing in a choir or a bluegrass band. So can painting community murals or birding or fostering old dogs that no one else will.
8. Families
Families are hard, hard, hard, no matter how cherished and astonishing they may also be. Again, see number one. Remember that in all cases, it’s a miracle that any of us, specifically, were conceived and born. Earth is forgiveness school. It begins with forgiving yourself, and then you might as well start at the dinner table.
9. Food
Try to do a little better. I think you know what I mean.
10. Grace
Grace is spiritual WD-40, or water wings. The mystery of grace is that God loves Henry Kissinger and Vladimir Putin and me exactly as much as He or She loves your new grandchild. Go figure.
11. God just means goodness.
It’s really not all that scary. Emerson said that the happiest person on Earth is the one who learns from nature the lessons of worship. So go outside a lot and look up. My pastor said you can trap bees on the bottom of mason jars without lids because they don’t look up, so they just walk around bitterly bumping into the glass walls. Go outside. Look up. Secret of life.
12. Death
It’s so hard to bear when the few people you cannot live without die. You’ll never get over these losses, and no matter what the culture says, you’re not supposed to. We Christians like to think of death as a major change of address, but in any case, the person will live again fully in your heart if you don’t seal it off. Like Leonard Cohen said, “There are cracks in everything, and that’s how the light gets in.”
You can watch the full version of the talk over here on YouTube.