The Old Lands OTS 3.0

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1) At the end of his life, Timothy Leary apologized for having written so many
books. The book, he said, is out of date, old technology, and therefore only adds to the pollution of the world.
2) Writing as a Spiritual Practice was the name of a workshop I once attended. The leader was a Zen nun with a severe grey crewcut and three-hour-a-day habit which she executed whether she felt like it or not, unlike me. When you write about painful material from the past, she taught us, the psychological issue will be fully resolved when the piece is complete.
3) “The transformation of waste is perhaps the oldest preoccupation of man,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],” Patti Smith rants on Easter.
4) Another seminar I attended, this one called River Stories, co-led by Kirsten Linklater, originator of the famed voice method, and Carol Gilligan, the distinguished Harvard psychologist, was attended by forty female actors and me. As one of the exercises, we wrote a song, a poem, a dialog, and a scene for four poignant moments of our lives. After I performed for the group my vignettes that had been transformed into ‘art,’ I felt better about my life than ever before. By that time I’d acquired a long resume I could’ve been proud of, but it meant nothing to me because I’d never planned on a corporate career nor did I value it. Creating stories, transforming the garbage into something worth sharing; I acknowledged for the first time the bravery of one little life.
5) “I don’t know why to finish my book,” I struggled. “Metaphysically it makes no difference if I finish it or not.” Andy Couturier, writing midwife and decent person extraordinaire, raised his hands to his heart in the namaste gesture, then widened his arms, palms up, out into the world, bringing tears to my eyes.
6) After eight years, I’ve finished my book. I apologize in advance if it adds to the pollution of the world. Personally I found that working with life events and turning them into fiction, fiction with its arc and mythic aspiration, liberated me from the quiet cell those emotions had entrapped me in for years. When the book was finished I could move on, and not a day before. Suddenly, the past no longer owned the best days of my life; now it was now; the best days are the present. Freedom, it spelled freedom. So I have learned: do your art; create your thing; write your book. It’s some of the best therapy in the world. Then widen your arms and let it spread out, offering a tear to the worldwide heart.
? 2010 Catherine Auman