Thursday, August 21, 2008
A year alone?
I've been listening to one of Joan Anderson's books in my car. (Cds are a pleasant alternative to music or talk, by the way though that's a subject for another day.) I'm not sure what I think. She's got some wonderful ideas but also a tone of smugness that's annoying and alarming. Some of what she suggests is undoubtedly useful and I've even done a fair number of the exercises and processes on my own. But you get the feeling that she's saying if women would isolate themselves and discover their own needs then everything else would fall into place. I don't mean to challenge her but other people are involved in people's lives and we cannot control them at all. Sometimes they don't respond as we'd like, even if we're entirely centered and calm. Obviously the effect of someone being non-responsive or antagonistic is very different if one's own center is calm and clear, but that doesn't seem quite what she's saying. Then again, maybe I'm just resisting. I must say spending a weekend, month or year in a cottage on Cape Cod sounds like heaven although few of us have the financial wherewithal. Have any rare readers experienced her books/workshops and, if so, what do you think?
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