Regrets, I've had a few

You know how you feel about certain of your ex-lovers: you recall them, and your passion about them, with a mixture of fondness and embarrassment. I've never met Anne Lamott -- author of a superb book about writing, Bird by Bird, as well as a humorous book about child-raising, a humorous book about her spirituality, and several novels few people have read -- but I have the same sort of relationship with her (or, rather, to her public persona) as I do with some ex-girlfriends. After a period of infatuation and intimacy (in this case through reading), I have a sudden, inexplicable feeling of being fed up, during which(in this case) I stopped reading her Salon columns. Finally I have come to regard her with a mixture of happiness and regret.

Her latest piece in Salon captures all the things that please and frustrate me. It expresses admirable sentiments I agree with -- in this case, the proposition that it might be better for the people of California to express love rather than hatred toward politicians we don't agree with -- but is way too much about her own interior life, refers to Jesus by name too many times, and goes on too long.

All the Jesus references used to be funny, for the same reasons Garrison Keillor's audience always laughs when he says the word "Lutherans": it's funny in an unexpected context. But if you go to that well too often, the joke becomes expected. Now every time Keillor says "Lutherans" and the audience guffaws, I cringe. And I'm starting to get that way about Lamott, too. Not that I think she should stop writing about her spiritual life and the unexpected places it takes her. But I'd like her to stop throwing around "Jesus" so much by name, and I'd like her to stop using the personal pronouns quite as much, too.

Also, her hairdo irritates me. But most people's hairdos do. Even when there's no hair at all. Case in point: I was on Castro St. last night, the evening after the Folsom St. Fair, an annual event for the "leather community." And shaved heads being common among those folks, there were plenty of post-festivants still in their street fair drag, spilling out of bars. Now, I like the shaved look; I've done it myself for periods, and I will in the future. But when there's a whole group of people with any particular look all together, what seemed fancy when you got dressed for the day immediately looks tired.

But I'm just being cranky. Despite having sold the truck yesterday, thus getting some cash to pay off a credit card and also reducing our monthly insurance bill, we're still running short. Yesterday we decided to cancel the daily newspaper. But it's not so bad that we have to cancel the cable TV. It'll be a dark day when we have to cancel cable.