A New View of Old Birds

While engaged in her favorite pastime of backyard birdwatching, Miss Kitty found herself distracted by a copy of Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird that I had left for Tania and Nancy, Kitty’s humans.

Naturally assuming it was a field guide to her fine-feathered friends, Kitty pawed through the pages. Finding neither pictures nor plates, however, she nearly dismissed the book when she noted the subtitle: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

Ah, a field guide of a different sort.

Well, Kitty purred in characteristic patience and deference, I don’t often write, but who can’t use some instructions on life?

Lamott entwines the two, Kitty soon realized, because good writing is about living a good life, paying attention to detail, caring about other people, and “telling the truth.”

With their magical ability to get inside other people’s minds and skins, writers are like cats—they learn by first paying attention.

 “There’s ecstasy in paying attention,” Lamott preaches. “Anyone who wants to can be surprised by the beauty or pain of the natural world, of the human mind and heart, and can try to capture just that—the details, the nuance, what is. If you start to look around, you will start to see.”

Well, hello, thought Kitty. This is the life of a cat. For what does a cat do better than pay attention? So, she snuggled in for a good read.

The title derives from a kitchen-table anecdote from the author’s childhood. Her brother, then 10 years old, was stymied to tears over a report on birds due the next day. He had procrastinated for months because he didn’t know how to start. Their father put his arm around the boy and said, “Bird by bird, Buddy, just take it bird by bird.”

The first step, then, is to start. When you give yourself permission to start writing, Lamott says, “You start thinking like a writer.”

Kitty began substituting the word cat for writer, and everything began to make sense.

“Learn to be more compassionate company,” Lamott says, “As if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage.”

Being compassionate company is the very essence of being feline.

Like in the evening, when Tania sings a few bars of “Happy Birthday,” Kitty obliges Tania’s need to snuggle and brush her. Everybody is happy because Kitty is somebody she herself is fond of.

Compassion starts with getting inside other people’s minds and skins. Thinking like a writer means understanding the characters you create. You have to live with them. There’s magic to that. Kitty understood that, too.

For example, when she came to live with Tania and Nancy, they all had to be honest about each other’s needs. The humans established:

• Consistent definitions (No means No);
• Dedicated turf (no lounging on the dining room table, no scratching furniture);
• And a firm schedule (time to eat, sleep, and play).

Yes, getting inside one another’s skins keeps everyone happy, especially at 5 a.m.

Nothing, Lamott says, gets you inside other people’s minds and skins faster than understanding their suffering—physical, emotional, and spiritual.

But suffering alone does not make great literature. Lamott looks to the late Daniel Hillel, an Israeli-American agronomist and author for inspiration. Despite his astute research and profound findings on agriculture, Hillel is perhaps most famous for saying, “I get up. I walk. I fall down. Meanwhile, I keep dancing.”

Lamott emphasizes that the way she dances is by writing. Terrible first efforts (she calls them shitty first drafts) can lead to good things (like number-one bestsellers). The message is to keep moving.

Lamott dances by writing. Kitty dances by, well, dancing.

One of Lamott’s final instructions on writing and life deals with finding an elusive sense of serenity.

“The world can’t give that serenity,” Lamott says in summary. “But the good news is, the world can’t take it away.

Kitty agrees. When she sees Nancy and Tania running around, feels the roofers pounding away, or hears the landscapers buzzing by, she wonders why humans don’t live a more feline lifestyle.

Kitty doesn’t need to write a whole book to express her instructions on life. They’re simple. Sit still. Close your eyes. Open them slowly. Look. Listen. Absorb. Purr. Dance.