Anne Lamott: Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith [Ron]

How Anne Lamott Got Her Joy Back

Lamott's pastor, Veronica, told her that God tells his people to rejoice, but to do that you've had to have had joy before.[1] With that in mind, Lamott and her friend, Neshama went to San Quentin to teach inmates how to tell stories. Lamott would teach them how to write-and to use obscenities-and Neshama would teach them how to tell crafted stories from the stage.[2]

It's a great experience to visit prisoners. I've certainly done it and grown spiritually for having done so. Lamott's father had gone to San Quentin as well in the 1950s and 1960s and then published articles in The New Yorker about his students. His approach was simple: "He did not bog down in complex moral and ethical matters-victims' rights, recidivism. He just taught the prisoners to read good books, to speak English, and to write. My father treated them with respect and kindness, his main philosophical and spiritual position being, Don't be an a**hole."[3] Good advice.

Lamott, her dad, her brothers and friends also stood vigil outside the gates of San Quentin "in protest and silent witness whenever someone was going to be gassed."[4] Why? If someone were convicted on murder, why in the world would you protest their execution? Our culture of death has become desensitized to the often brutal murders that occur. Why in the world would I protest the execution of Jessica Lundsford's murderer? He brutalized that little girl. Both the Old as well as the New Testament is clear that putting convicted murderers to death purges the evil from our midst (cf. Deut. 13:5; 17:7, 12; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21; 22:22, 24; 24:7).

In a moment of existential self-awareness Lamott discloses that she hardly knows "what to feel most days, except grief and bug-eyed paranoia."[5] Veronica assured her, however, by her sermons. In one, Ronnie quoted the Reverend James Forbes-who?-as saying, "Nobody gets into heaven without a letter of reference from the poor."[6] Really? Where is that in the Bible? Where do you have to go to get the letter? While it is patently true that the Word of God has a great deal to say about the poor, I'm at a loss about the letter thing.

As they stood waiting outside the prison getting stamped to go in, one guard stamped their hands and said, "You don't glow, you don't go." For Lamott, it was "the best spiritual advice I'd had in a long time."[7] I'll bet it was. Even Veronica couldn't top this spiritual gem. 2 Hesitations 5:12. It just has to rank right up there with some of the greatest spiritual advice imaginable.

Most of the audience was made up of murderers serving life sentences. Candidly, Ms. Lamott tells us that she had some apprehensions because she figured that some might try to win her over so that she would "marry them and get them better lawyers, and consort with them on alternate Tuesdays."[8] There was no danger of that. Not even these lifers were that desperate.

Speaking of criminals-which we are-did you know that "Jesus was soft on crime"?[9] Yep. I suppose Veronica told Ms. Lamott that too. Lamott doesn't elaborate, so we just have to take her at her word. 2 Hesitations something-or-other. Now remember that we've been told that she and Neshama are at San Quentin dealing with men in for life for murder. I'll just bet that you will be as surprised as I was to find out that there was "razor wire everywhere, and a constant clanging and banging of gates and cells and doors."[10] My, my. Imagine that in a prison. Moreover, "Guards carry arms, and keys that could be from the Middle Ages."[11] Unbelievable. I'm shocked! Guards with real guns watching convicted murderers? What is this country coming to?

Not only this, but the prison is overcrowded as well and the cells are grotesque.[12] What was she expecting? The Hilton? They're being punished for a heinous crime. It's neither supposed to be fun nor pleasurable. Lamott claims to understand how the families of victims believe the criminals deserve this, but apparently Lamott's seeing footage of Hussein's two dead sons had an adverse affect on her. Really? Those two thugs? I, for one, was relieved that they would no longer murder or rape another person. Seeing them dead reminded me that there is such a thing as a deterrent.

We are not certain what Neshama looks like, but compared to her, Lamott seemingly looks as prim and mainstream as Laura Bush.[13] Now there's a left-handed compliment if there ever were one! Yikes! Anyway, the prisoners were a mixed bag; some looking "p***ed off, some bored, some attentive..."[14] The older ones, we are told, looked like God.[15] I mean you don't even want to ask how she…never mind.

But Neshama has a way with people. Here's what she said to the prisoners, which certainly qualifies as the profound thought of the day: "I'm human, you're human, let me greet your humanness. Let's be people together for a while."[16] Are you kidding me? What choice did they have except to be people together for a while? Is this supposed to be profound? Authentic? I'm not sure, but Lamott is convinced that the "communal well" (we're also not sure it was actually a well. As deep as it was getting in there it could very well have been something else other than a well.) that day "evoked the listening child in these men."[17] Yep. I'll bet that's exactly what they said to each other on the way back to their cells that day. "You know, that was the first time in a long while my listening child was evoked." Say what?

Pastor Ron Gleason, Ph.D.
Yorba Linda, CA

[1] Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, (NY: Riverhead Books, 2005), p. 179.
[2] Ibid., 180.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid., 181.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid., 182.
[8] Ibid., 183.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid., 184.
[11] Ibid.
[12] Ibid., 185.
[13] Ibid., 187.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid., 188.
[17] Ibid.