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July 05, 2006
RRN: Traveling Mercies
One of the books I am “reading right now” is Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott.
I am a huge fan of her book Bird by Bird, which is about writing.
I’m only a little bit into Traveling Mercies but so far it’s pretty good. (Although there are a lot of drug references in the first section. I guess Ms. Lamott had a very colorful adolescence.)
This is my favorite quote from the book so far: (She is talking about why she preferred to spend time at her friend’s house instead of her own.)
“In a way life was easier there than over at my house, because at least it was consistent: Mary was always a drunken mess, Pammy’s father was always in prison. Over at my house, things could go any number of ways. I have read since that this is how you induce psychosis in rats: you behave inconsistently with them, you keep changing the rules. One day when they press down the right lever, expecting a serving of grain like they’ve always gotten before, they instead get a shock. And eventually the switching back and forth drives them mad, while the rats who get shocked every time they press the lever figure it out right away and work around it.” (page 19)
It spoke to me because one of the most stressful times in my life involved dealing with people who were particularly inconsistent. I could never be sure what they wanted or how they would react at any given moment. It seemed that the rules were constantly changing without notice. And that is a very stressful place to be.
It’s a delicate balance between predictability and boredom, I realize. Life thrives in that thin zone between chaos and stagnation. Too far in either direction, and it all goes wrong.
Posted by Selena at July 5, 2006 04:04 PM