David Sedaris.
I mentioned running across that "Stuff White People Like" blog not long ago, about the St. Patricks' Day Parade. Sedaris was pretty higly ranked on that list.
I've loved David Sedaris's books for years. I haven't actually laid down the lucre for many of them -- I own "Naked" and "When You Are Engulfed in Flames" but the rest have been courtesy of the Douglas County Libraries.
What IS it about his prose? So many things, actually.
First, he writes in a way that I completely envy -- so open about his utterly flawed person. Persona? Personality? Soul? All of the above. He's so blase about the bare fact that he's greedy, selfish, self-centered, etc... and it's always a (by the way-type comment)that he's gay.
I grew up in San Francisco -- it has never, never bothered me if two men dig each other, I started seeing male friends as couples when I was a kid. Totally not a big deal to me, in the least. I love Sedaris's stance -- even when he's denigrating himself for his social failings, it's not based on his sexuality -- it's the stuff that is common to ALL of us, no matter who you're attracted to.
I just flat-out enjoy his writing.
Right now, I'm reading "Naked". I thought I had read this in the past, but turns out that I had not. In the past few days, we in the Denver area have been dealing wiht massive snow. Curling up on the sofa reading "Naked" has been fun! Hubby's asleep, daughter's at work, sun is shining but waning, and I'm reading David Sedaris talking about his wandering days in his 20's. I wish that had been my background, instead of being so totally responsible as I had been. I had an aged grandma to care for, as well as Being In Love, when I was in m early 20's. Married at 22. So I get to live a bit vicariously by David's stories about living in SF, picking apples in Oregon, etc.
I never did anything like that. Odds are great that I never will get to do anything like that. ("Look at that old lady hitchhiking..." just doesn't have that devil-may-care ring to it.)
I just kept building "a Life" and moving forward. I have never had a point in my life where where i had no idea what would come next. I was never a "hippie" (despite the fact that my daughters seem to think I was!!).
No, my life, overall, has been woefully convential, struggles and wins, money-scrambles and windfalls, the whole works has had me landed squarely in the nice-neighborhood upscale suburbs, no matter where we went. Not who I imagined I'd be, when I was a teenager, but there it is.
I look at people I know who were lucky enough to end up with that familial financial cushion called INHERITANCE, or Anticipated Inheritance, and I know that, in some wayh, I'm just a liiiiitttttlllle bit ahead of those folks. I remember my old roommate, rich NJ JAP, whose daddy would sweep in to write off checks to square her up when she overran her Pacific Heights allowance. I loved her, she was a great friend -- but the depth wasn't there. She'd never had to face loss and deal with it, or make decisions that were really risky, and have to deal with the results, good or bad.
I've had to do it on my own. I've been on my own since my mom died at 15, and I had to either sink or swim, no safety net. "They" may be more comfy, more better off, have an easier time of it than I do because they've managed to inherit big bucks -- but I can look those people in the eye and not feel bad, because what I HAVE, I have achieved without the help of Mummy, Daddee, Grandadd, Gramma, or any other relative or trust fund.
I may wish I had more bucks in the account, more zeroes in the balance, but what I have, I have earned myself, through my own personal labors. That's something to be proud of.
