When I turned 50, Brent had a surprise birthday party for me. We drove down a dark country road to a community hall with a packed parking lot. Still I didn’t catch on. Our friends who were with us told me someone had turned the hall into a temporary restaurant out here close to the middle of nowhere. I thought: “That’s neat.”
We walked into a crowded hall full of people from different stages of my life. “How strange,” I thought.
If you ever want to throw a surprise party, I’m your gal.
Some people gave toasts and said kind things, and a theme emerged that eventually started to make me a little uncomfortable. “If you want to know what she really thinks, just ask Karen,” a few people said. “She’s a real truth teller.”
Gosh. What have I said to these people? ran through my mind.
And also: Aren’t we all telling the truth to each other?
Believe me, I do have my limits. If you like your shirt, and I don’t like your shirt, I won’t say anything about your shirt. I promise.
But as a writer (and a person who was a minister’s wife who is also a writer) I have learned that the more honest and transparent I am, the more love and support I have received. Does that make me sound like a giant, needy baby? Maybe. I can see how my transparency = love formula could be interpreted as clingy. But it’s not. It’s just what happens in the world most of the time. Tell the truth and other people respond with surprise, then relief. Almost always.
Honesty and transparency — the ability to tell the truth about ourselves and eventually how we see the world — is one of the things that makes us beautifully, brokenly even more human. And also way more able to walk with other people in a good and helpful way.
I see you. You see me. We are telling each other the truth about what we see, know and experience. We don’t have to agree on much other than we are in this together.
There is a new honest and ongoing conversation alive in the world today, called Good Books Big Questions, a NavPress podcast (the publisher of Holiness Here and a long history of wonderful books including much of the work of Eugene Peterson). You can listen and subscribe here.
I’m the fortunate host. I’ve been working on this project for a while with the partnership of my friend Margot Linke, who recently retired from CBC as a producer, and was as eager as me to make something new. So, we did!
I hope you’ll enjoy these as-honest-as-we-can-get-them conversations about books, and then life and faith and mystery with NavPress authors.
Books matter. Reading has been a huge part of my life in general and my spiritual life in particular, since I was a girl reading literally all night long, if the book was good enough. Once I was so intent on my book I didn’t notice a smouldering toy I had rather foolishly sat on top of my reading lamp. I can still picture, and smell, my beloved rabbit puppet burning beside me while I read my book. My sister rescued me and the house.
So if you’re a reader and a gabber and a listener, and curious, please give the podcast a try. Don’t be scared to hit the subscribe button. It just means you’ll know when new episodes drop. The show is a “good walk around the neighbourhood” length.
We’d love to hear what you think.
And if you believe in books and publishing, check out the books that interest you on this show. If you read them, review them (yes, tell the truth of course!) and share them with your friends. Drop an encouraging word to the authors. Believe me, they love that stuff. Thanks! Now, I’m off to do some reading….