REACTION TO A BIOGRAHY: "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed

You know, I am a writer. Right now I have little to say.

I just finished reading "wild" by Cheryl Strayed, who picked her last name when she and her first husband divorced. She thought it fit. I can understand that.

It is a complicated, captivating book. Her biography at 26. I couldn't do half as well at 69. It is really good. It is really disturbing to me. It is really thinkable.

There are parts I reasonate so much to. She describes country I have at least visited, and no matter how good the writer is, if you have seen some of it, you imagine better.
Her analysis of the need to preserve the wilderness and what it can mean to each of us is poetry I heard long ago. I like her tribute to past champions.

She has been so very honest. She has morals--she won't stiff a waiter. she won't steal. She says please and thank you. She pitches in when she can. She has some good friends, including her ex. She can mate indiscriminately without regret except when she was married. She says at one point she is more like a man in that. And the counselor says she has more to learn.

She made the Pacific Crest Trail in 1995 This is printed in what? she isn't sure what she has learned.

I'm not sure what I've learned, either. I do have friends who have read the books she read at night on the hike. I am one of the Philistines. I read good stuff only now and then. She apparently reads it all the time. I had not read any of her books to comfort her.My head honestly bows in shame. I am a smart educated woman. How can I not have read these? Shame again. Ducked head. I couldn't have walked like that, either, with so much pain... Iwouldn't. Which means I couldn't. But she did.

She gives a synopsis of her life at the end. I am glad she is married, with children and they seem all to love each other. It could have turned out differently.

I was trying to ignore prep for a colonostomy, my first, as it happens. It made the book more riveting, which kinkily, tied in. At least I had SOME disomfort!

I understand there's a great audio. I warn you, though, the sex scenes may make you squirm. No not me. Not for years. But I do remember.

BTW I don't have to have another of these colon exams for 10 years. Why would I want want to at 80? : ) No, that's more than 10. : ) I'm glad this book got published. I am glad I dwelled on it. I am glad ( I guess) I finally had the colonoscopy. Even the doctors say no more for 10 years. There is a connection. I bet she wouldn't have wanted to make that hike again in 10 years, either. But then, I've missed a lot of her biography.