Some people think all writers are after "the Great American Novel." But I know many writers, and they are each doing their own things, as I am--from poetry to comedy, from short stories to nonfiction.
One thing all writers have in common is a love of looking and listening, finding in strangers pieces of people we know, or people we are, or people a little bit like people we used to be. When we find a juicy character in a stranger we sit beside on a plane, we consider turning her into a story--as she is a mirror for characters we've encountered in real life.
Actually, I sat in the seat in front of my most recent find; I couldn't even see her face. Listening to her for two hours on the flight from Greenville to Houston, I got enough material for a novel, but I lack the intellectual fortitude, skill, or patience to stay with her for more than a page.
Let's call her Stardust. She spoke loudly and confidently to her seat mate for my two hour flight yesterday, and her voice carried clearly for three or four rows. Frequently, she laughed--a loud, resonant, annoying laugh. It wasn't a mirthful laugh; it was more a practiced, all-knowing Guru-laugh, the kind she might have picked up from an encounter with an Enlightened Being.
Stardust's seat mate (let's call her Lucy) was too soft-spoken for me to make out most of her words, so I focused on the speech of the woman I came to know was a "spiritual healer"--a pastiche of New Age clichés.
"I can tell you are a giver," she said. "You give give give give give give give!" [seven gives!] So how are you at receiving?"
I waited as Lucy responded, then I heard Stardust say, "You have to feel it to heal it....If you were my client, I would invite you to start journaling. See what comes up around that. You have to feel your feelings. Do not run away from them. Feel, feel, feel, feel, feel, feel, feel!" [seven feels!]
Lucy talked some more and I strained, unsuccessfully, to hear what she said.
"Oh dear! You have been a caretaker all of your life!" Stardust replied. "Bless your heart! Now you are on a beautiful path of self-transformation. Today you are sitting here with me for a reason. You are going to take back your life and attend to your lonely little inner child."
Lucy told her more, but I could only make out a few words: mother-in-law, husband, children.
"In those moments, give it over to God, to your angels, and to your ancestors. There's a whole team up there waiting to support you....I talk to God, my angels, and my ancestors all the time."
Soon, they were talking about butter. Stardust had recently attended an herb conference: "Cutting edge as far as going back to the earth," she said. "It's a conference of ancient medicine women. Here's the skinny on what you need to do. It's all about butter."
In certain circles, "It" is often all about One Thing. But butter?
Lucy was advised to buy raw organic butter and start eating it regularly. "It's the best source of high quality fatty acids and it will change your life....If you are lucky, you may find it at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, but since the really good butter is illegal to sell, you have to ask around at farmer's markets."
After half an hour on butter, during which I dozed a bit, they moved to past incarnations. "I believe in past lives," Stardust told Lucy. "I have had many past lives and in every one of them I have been a mother to many children, a wife, a caretaker like you. But I've always had a pain in my heart--that I couldn't do what I was meant to do. This lifetime has been a long time coming. This lifetime is for me, just me."
Lucy complimented Stardust on her skin. "Well, you have pretty skin, too," Stardust said to Lucy. "Mine is a reward of eating only the highest quality foods, grown locally, no meat, no sugar. Mostly grains, fresh vegetables, and butter." Then there was a little pocket of silence--as Stardust "needed a moment" to "go inside herself."
When the conversation resumed, I could hear Stardust asking Lucy, "May I tell you a little bit about my life?" to which Lucy said, enthusiastically, "Oh yes! I'm sorry! This has been all about me, hasn't it?"
Stardust's narrative sounded well-rehearsed: "I was a child of divorce. Both my father and my step-father were good people, just filled up with demons and anger and rage. My mother, though she was wonderful, was weak and unavailable. As a result, I learned to be invisible, not to cause anyone any trouble. 'Don't bother about me!'--that was my mantra."
"This all worked for me until I was about 28. I had a lover who was handsome, funny, smart, and successful. But the pain in my heart was constant. When I went back to school and studied spiritual healing, I realized that he just wasn't available for the spiritual life, so we went our separate ways. I still love him and his way of being in the world, but I just had to accept that we were together for a season, not for life."
When the plane was gearing down for landing, Stardust said, "I need a moment now. When a plane ascends or descends, it is important to concentrate on that energy and refrain from talking."
As we stood to de-plane, I finally got to take a look at the pair behind me. Lucy was a grandmother, as I'd imagined her to be; Stardust was maybe thirty, tall, curly haired, beautiful. She had flawless buttery skin.
Lucy was showing a picture of a grandchild on her phone. Stardust's voice was a reverential audible whisper. "She is a truly exquisite being, a beautiful soul. I feel that I have known her on another plane. I could have been her mother or something."
"I'm going to get me some of that butter," Lucy promised as they parted.
"And always remember, you are on a beautiful path. Just learn to receive all that the Universe has in store for you. Take care of your inner child. She needs your care."
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