Learning from Lamott

Christine Cissy White 6/14/1510:31 AM

The reason I'm sharing this here is that Anne Lamott is one of the first people to pave the way and write honestly about depression, recovery and childhood trauma. She's beloved by many of us. This just came out on Elephant Journal today.

Anne Lamott f’d up.

Big.

Yup—the sensitive, hilarious, brilliant, neurotic, astonishingly genuine and gentle, talented writer Anne

Lamott.

It’s so disappointing.

The Anne Lamott who famously writes fiction and non-fiction about recovery, pregnancy, menopause, faith-seeking, single motherhood, grace, a complicated childhood and sobriety while being a liberal Christian.

The Anne Lamott who has won a Guggenheim fellowship, been a bestselling author and who sat across from Oprah on Super Soul Sunday.

The Anne Lamott who showed the world it is possible to be brilliant, bizarre and big.

It was a seismic shock when she of all people wrote this cruel, snarky, hateful, ignorant and insensitive comment earlier this week. She tweeted:

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Christine Cissy WhiteIt's not trauma-informed unless it's informed by trauma survivors.

Grace,

I agree - openness goes a LONG LONG LONG way in my book. And it's not so easy to be open so when someone is I find that pretty wonderful. Anne Lamott actually read the piece and shared the link on her Twitter page. That was kind of wild to see. A first for me for sure!

That took guts too since it wasn't exactly all warmth and praise. I respect that as well!

I admire her relationship with her son and that they can communicate like that. It's inspiring.

Cissy

Originally Posted by Grace Harris:

Thanks for this. Yes, I think we are all learning and isn't that the point - to be open to making mistakes, learning from them, apologizing and moving on as a better human beings. It sure beats being stuck in the mud and thinking only one way is the right way. I, too, love, Anne Lamott, but I have days, I just want to sit her down and say, "Really? What were you thinking?" It's cool that her son is able to contribute to her growth so beautifully.

6/16/151:52 PM