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Traveling Mercies |
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 Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith byAnn Lamott Anchor Books 275 pages, 1999 ISBN 0385496095 Reviewed by Wesley Sharpe, EdD If you think that reading about faith in God is boring stuff, best selling author Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies may change your mind. Faith wasn't easy for Lamott. The daughter of non-religious parents, her God "was a patchwork God sewn together from bits of rag and ribbon, Eastern and Western pagan and Hebrew everything but the kitchen sink and Jesus." She tells how drugs, alcohol, and other addictions controlled her, and it seemed inevitable that she would lose the battle with her personal demons. The turnaround began when she found her spiritual family in a small San Francisco Bay Area Christian church across the street from a huge flea market. On Sundays she sometimes stood in the doorway or sat on a folding chair in the back row and let the gospel music envelop her. Even when she was too drunk or hung over to do anything else but sit on the chair, the warmth of the congregation's love flowed over her. In her clear, captivating style, Lamott recounts the night that she became aware that Jesus was present in the corner of her room "watching me with patience and love." For the next week "I had a feeling that a cat was following me, waiting for me to reach down and pick it up, wanting me to open the door and let it in." Finally, she opened the door. "I took a long deep breath and said out loud. All right. You can come in. So this was my beautiful moment of conversion." In a series of essays, Traveling Mercies describes Lamott's coming to faith and her struggle with her addictions, bulimia, and good and bad relationships. In it she shares her growing dependence on prayer to solve problems as diverse as parenting her son Sam, understanding her friend Pammy's death, and finding a cheap Jetta that would run forever. Traveling Mercies is witty, irreverent, and an inspiring story of how God has touched Lamott's life. Regardless of our own religious journeys, it is almost impossible to ignore Lamott's. It's fascinating reading. |
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