“Tiny, Beautiful Things” by Cheryl Strayed
I’m not a big fan of advice columnists, but Cheryl Strayed, author of the blockbuster, WILD, is an exception. In 2010, before WILD was published, Strayed was revealed as “Dear Sugar”, online advice columnist. TINY, BEAUTIFUL THINGS is a compilation of her answers to readers’ questions, and includes the best “popular” advice I’ve encountered about navigating this adventure/struggle/mystery we call life.
Strayed uses “radical empathy” in her responses to questions about relationships, depression, emotional distress, drug usage, and grief. A combination therapist/mother/friend, she identifies with her reader, understands and hurts with her/him, and speaks to how the reader may be off base, suggesting healthier, more effective paths.
Strayed does not soft soap her answers. She confronts. She calls out the fallacies we insist on keeping, the ones that insist we’re right and everyone else is wrong. But she confronts in a manner that’s straightforward and kind, therefore palatable and genuinely helpful. I’ve suggested TINY, BEAUTIFUL THINGS to clients going through hard times, and they’ve said it shed valuable light into their darkness.
Strayed herself is no stranger to hardship. If you read WILD or saw the movie, you know she’s suffered more than your average human. Her responses in TINY, BEAUTIFUL THINGS reveal even more of her painful upbringing, as she’s perfectly willing to tell some nasty truths about her own struggle with despair and her belief in healing and hope.
“We’re all Bozos on this Bus,” Frank Zappa titled one of his albums. Ed and I often quote this to a client who is in pain and feeling alone. Cheryl Strayed, in TINY, BEAUTIFUL THINGS, owns her own Bozoness in ways most columnists don’t, and speaks to readers in ways that normalize and honor theirs.
Strayed uses “radical empathy” in her responses to questions about relationships, depression, emotional distress, drug usage, and grief. A combination therapist/mother/friend, she identifies with her reader, understands and hurts with her/him, and speaks to how the reader may be off base, suggesting healthier, more effective paths.
Strayed does not soft soap her answers. She confronts. She calls out the fallacies we insist on keeping, the ones that insist we’re right and everyone else is wrong. But she confronts in a manner that’s straightforward and kind, therefore palatable and genuinely helpful. I’ve suggested TINY, BEAUTIFUL THINGS to clients going through hard times, and they’ve said it shed valuable light into their darkness.
Strayed herself is no stranger to hardship. If you read WILD or saw the movie, you know she’s suffered more than your average human. Her responses in TINY, BEAUTIFUL THINGS reveal even more of her painful upbringing, as she’s perfectly willing to tell some nasty truths about her own struggle with despair and her belief in healing and hope.
“We’re all Bozos on this Bus,” Frank Zappa titled one of his albums. Ed and I often quote this to a client who is in pain and feeling alone. Cheryl Strayed, in TINY, BEAUTIFUL THINGS, owns her own Bozoness in ways most columnists don’t, and speaks to readers in ways that normalize and honor theirs.