"I was impressed with mom's tenacity. How could
she keep writing without an audience, not even
her family? She just did."
Diane Keaton
THEN AGAIN
Diane Keaton wrote a memoir about her mother who scribed incessantly and left little notes everywhere. The book is entitled, THEN AGAIN. It was gifted to me a few years back by two very dear young people. This book was on my wish list as I have admired Diane Keaton for years. In some ways, she has been a symbol to me ... independent, funny, personal style, and authenticity. So I was quite surprised to be taken in by the character of her mother.
Diane Keaton's mom left numerous collages and journals all around her home and their unexpected surfacing constantly surprised her daughter. The writings were filled with genuine reflection, joy, insight and pain. At times Diane, as the reader, found the writings to be very raw and revealing.
As a writer, I can easily understand the mother's passion for writing as an outlet where one can vent the ugly and the beautiful. As a reader, our self-imposed images of the writer drastically fall to the side as we step into the intimacy of real life. The words joined together with tears and laughter, creates a rocky path to the heart of all things occurring inside of the individual. There are no filters, just the truth as it is perceived.
It was once written, if all the therapists were taken from the world, mental health could be maintained if everyone kept a daily journal. So the value of the writing is not necessarily in the audience, but in the story being told. As the reader, we are welcomed into a private world that we may or may not agree with nor understand. The beauty of a personal journey is the selected words to best represent the passing of our lessons, uncensored.
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