2022-03-03
1 小时 0 分钟I'm very interested in enlightening someone's mind, if I can possibly manage it.
But what I want most of all is to touch their heart.
I want to jolt their heart because I really think that's the way in to other human lives.
The shortest distance between anything is a story that jolts the heart.
So how does a surgical and pediatric nurse become one of the most widely acclaimed and beloved writers of our time?
This was the jumping in point for my conversation with Sue Monk Kidd.
From her earliest memories, sue wanted to be a writer.
But growing up in a small town in Georgia, she was kind of channeled into a much narrower set of career offerings that were offered up as the quote, only appropriate kinds of work for women, and that never sat well with sue.
But not quite having found her own voice yet, she ended up following the thread into nursing school and then into a season of life where she built a career in medicine while raising a family.
But when she turned 30, that stifled yearning to make writing her devotion was reawakened, and she could not walk away from it any longer.
She literally stood up in her kitchen and announced out loud to her husband and kids that she was going to write.
Who didn't realize the seriousness of what had just happened.
And profoundly influenced by contemplative writers like Merton, she began to pen essays and meditations and stories and see them published, which then led to books about her own take on life and feminism and a more expansive and inclusive spirituality.
Then, more than a decade into her writing life, she did what writers are so often cautioned away from.
She changed lanes from nonfiction to fiction, writing short stories and eventually going all in on a novel that would become the massive international blockbuster the Secret Life of Bees, the writing of which was its own five year odyssey, which we dive into as we sat down.
We explored this incredible journey and how she navigated major shifts in both career and life.
We also dive into her most recent novel, the Book of Longings, a fictional imagining of the early life of Jesus, told through the eyes of an equally strong and vibrant wife whose presence would never make the pages of history.
Now you can imagine this book stirred a lot of conversation and some controversy, and served as a provocation to explore not only history, but also the frame that brought this story to the way stories of women have and have not been told throughout history.
And who holds the power of the pen?
So excited to share this conversation with you.