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Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith
: Profane pontificating. Smorgasbord spirituality. Desecrating to the Bible & Jesus (See chapter : "Ham of God"). Envisions the disciples drunk, uttering blasphemous remarks/vulgarity after Jesus' murder: 'We're ****ed!'
This sort of personally-tailored eclectic hodgepodge belief system and overreliance on junior-high-locker-room-trashtalk for maximal expressiveness and shock value are definitely an acquired DIStaste.
I am a longtime Anne Lamott fan from Tiburon California, and a left-leaning democrat of eclectic but genuine faith. So you'd think this would be right up my street. I think of Anne as part of home, but I fear she's lost her mind. I loved Traveling Mercies: it didn't preach, it was funny, it was full of mercy and joy and wonder. Plan B is strident, arrogant, ignorant, and narrow-minded. I can't imagine who would like it. Annie! Quick, call your friends and get your joy of spirit back! And send Sam to a relative until you recover your sense of humor and proportion, for goodness sake!
 My remembered favorite essay by Anne Lamott is an address to a graduating class titled "B+ is Just Fine", and it is still somewhere on this hard drive. In it, Lamott decries the attempt to attain perfection and focuses instead on inspiring young people to accept their best efforts in life, even if the paradigm shifts from the ideal.
Plan B as choice of a title intrigues me, and the connection to the essay is evident. Plan B and Plan C are what humans resort to when plan A doesn't work out. And it rarely does.
Anybody out here living plan B? I am.
Lamott's narratives in this context justify that whatever works for individuals, with a semblance of grace, spirituality, and humanity, even if the process is not perfect, is good enough to lead a worthwhile life and find joy. Most of the book is about love and gritty awareness-of children, problems, family, friends, our earth, and self. The intelligent, good-humored and incisive prose coats our personal wounds like a balm. The allusions are multiple. The reader's pleasure lies in recognition and empathy, and forces one to reexamine the ordinary with renewed vigor and yes, confidence and acceptance. Lamott skews the standards to add inclusivity to all means, ways, and approaches.
I love her words.
Full of herself, full of ignorance, full of hatred, full of superiority.
I liked "Bird by Bird" but this book is just a continuous rant. And I don't really like rants that go on and on. A good short rant, to the point, that can be interesting, but she says this book is thoughts on faith. It's really not. It's just her blabbing on and on and on and on.
She seems so proud when she writes of how she screams at her son and then apologizes! Wow. What a good parent! Why doesn't she just control herself in the first place? It's all about HER.
I really tried to like this book but it is offensive.
A friend loaned me the book. I gave it a good try. I began each essay and finished about half, got 1/2 way thru the rest.
Her irrational hatred of Pres. Bush is strange, really on the edge. I wonder if Lamott is still sober. There isn't a lot of humility here.
Her nobility almost overwhelms her, she is so wonderful.
She "slips" when talking to a black friend and makes an insensitive, somewhat racist remark. What she said was what she really means, even though she says she didn't mean it like it sounded. It's obvious she's the superior person. Her true character shows in this book.
One essay "this dog's life" is sickening. Her dog is sick, dying, but she has a vet (a jerk in my opinion) who doesn't believe in putting animals down unless they are in pain -- even if the animal is dying -- and he gives Anne syringes of sedative for when the time comes that dog is almost dead. The labored breathing of the dog concerns Lamott but her vet assures her the dog doesn't feel any pain. As someone who has had many dogs, I wonder how that vet could tell by listening to the dog's breathing over the phone that the dog was not in pain! (I couldn't help but think of Terri Schiavo.) This is a quote of what the vet says: "She's not really in distress," he assured me [Lamott]. "This is hard work, like labor. And she has you, Jesus, and narcotics. We should all by so lucky."
Excuse me, I think I'll go throw up now.
It is always refreshing to me to come across a liberal, or progressive thinking Christian in an age of conservative ones making book lists, with what to me are fad books. The author is a joy or at least a pleasure because she is so honest about her anti-Bush views, while also being a very, very firm Christian in a manner that would probably make Christ himself proud. She is in essence the type of walk the talk Christian I respect and admire.
The author writes in a manner that is human and yet optimistic. Odd as it may sound I actually felt as if she were indeed the type of person Christ would have embraced, because she speaks of struggles, flaws and successes. Reminds me of the saying that ethics/morals are what we do when no one is watching. And she has a sense of humor that is so sorely lacking in most books by Christians.
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