Made for You and Me

I'm not a big memoir reader but I picked up Caitlin Shetterly's Made for You and Me: Going West, Going broke, Finding Home because I was signed up to take a workshop facilitated by her on Saturday. The book didn't arrive at the library through inter-library loan until Saturday, which meant it was too late to read it before the workshop, but I read it anyway, belatedly. I read it in two days, so that tells you something right there! I couldn't put it down and when I finally did put it down, I dream of Cait and her husband and their epic, heartbreaking journey across the country and back.

Reading this book and attending the workshop made me start to think about my own life--something you might assume a writer already does, a lot. But for me, writing is really escapist, and I almost never write anything even near the truth of my life. This made me pause, once I realized it, and it made me wonder if that's what is lacking from my writing. Maybe I don't need to write a memoir (I'm really not ready for that anyway), but I've started jotting things down, trying to unravel some truths inside all the emotional baggage, trying to find the heart of the story. I think I've been afraid to lay blame to certain things that have happened, to cast people I love in a bad light (or myself, if the truth be told). But reading Caitlin's book made me think that maybe there's a way to get it all out there, to be honest and raw and still kind.