Swinging from the Vine / 805 posts / 2,744 comments / feed / comments feed

brain coffee

Many things I read in “pop media” are more like brain beer for me - tasty, relaxing, refreshing, makes me go ahhhh….but also sort of lulls my brain into a groggy, tired stupor that makes me slur incoherently, and I have to read much more of it than is healthy in order to get revved up. And then there are publications like Relevant Magazine - - a pop ‘zine by all accounts but still provides some good material to get my brain going - - like a really good coffee.

I could have used street drugs as a metaphor but I didn’t want the inevitable question - “how do you know enough to compare speed and pot?” But in case you’re wondering, Relevant is a bit more like speed than pot. ;)

This month’s issue of Relevant will give me enough material to blog on for quite some time. But for now, I had to share this quote by Anne Lamott that I just sucked down like a couple giant iced mochas with half the flavors …a little sweet, straight to the point and carrying with it a punch and a lingering buzz.

One of my deepest beliefs is that every single thing that happens to you is yours. You get to own it, and you don’t have to keep others’ awful secrets for them anymore. You don’t have to be such a good son or such a good daughter that you can redeem their lives…If people don’t want you to write about them, then they should behave a lot better. It’s amazing when someone tells the truth.

I also love this from her - I feel very much this way

I have a very pathetic and innocent relationship with Jesus…Simple works for me. I love to read profound, theological, brilliant, stunning stuff that throws the lights on for me, and then I write about it so I can disseminate it. But I don’t have brilliant, theological thoughts. The difference my church makes is that I still get lost, but I find my way back sooner.

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10 Comments

  1. sonja — June 27, 2007 #

    Well … that first quote just sort of seals a deal with myself that I’ve been pondering. A post that’s been percolating and nudging at the edges. Thanks …

  2. Mak — June 27, 2007 #

    glad to be a catalyst :) or at least glad to show you anne lamott who is a catalyst. hehe

  3. Pingback - Brain Beer | TheGeoffRe(y)port — June 27, 2007 #

    [...] - “Brain Coffee - Swinging from the Vine“ [...]

  4. Mak — June 27, 2007 #

    thanks for the HT

  5. sonja — June 28, 2007 #

    Is that quote from her new book?

    O wait … you said it was in Relevant magazine. Never mind. I have her other books. I need to get her new book … maybe while I’m on vacation …

    Anyway … be on the lookout on my blog. Sometime over the weekend.

  6. Shauna — June 30, 2007 #

    I’m pretty sure she talks about this in Bird by Bird. I can’t remember which book I read it in, but that one seems most likely.

  7. Mak — July 2, 2007 #

    hey shauna, good to see you pop by. How goes it?

  8. Cynthia — July 4, 2007 #

    Hi Mak . . .

    I am reading Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird now . . . which is about writing and can I say, I just LOVE this woman. Anyone who can write a compelling book on writing … and I mean compelling in I-can’t-put-this-book-down is an incredible writer.

  9. Pingback - Calacirian » Happy 2 to Me — July 7, 2007 #

    [...] We’ve been retelling the old family stories from when I was a child and from their childhoods as well. Stories I’ve heard at least a million times, but now I’ve heard them a million and one. Funny, though, there are one or two I haven’t heard and this time I’ve told a few of my own from my childhood that LightMom hadn’t heard, or added my own perspective to a well known story that brought gales of laughter, or in one case a sense of relief. It made me think of this quote (which I first saw over at Mak’s place, but later read myself in Relevant magazine, by the grande damme herself, Anne Lamotte): One of my deepest beliefs is that every single thing that happens to you is yours. You get to own it, and you don’t have to keep others’ awful secrets for them anymore. You don’t have to be such a good son or such a good daughter that you can redeem their lives…If people don’t want you to write about them, then they should behave a lot better. It’s amazing when someone tells the truth. [...]

  10. Kristin — March 12, 2008 #

    Just stopped by as I ran a search on “Anne Lamott quotes” - I love that one about knowing you’ve created God in your own image when all your enemies are his enemies, all your loves are his..etc. Obviously that’s not It which is why I was running the search. But, I’ve never heard of Relevant magazine, or these latest gems from AL. Nice blog. Thanks!

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