Each month, we profile a new book that has inspired a BBLer in some way. This month, Pam tells us how Cheryl Strayed’s new book Wild helps her navigate life.
I’ve just finished reading Wild by Cheryl Strayed, and I feel like I’ve emerged from the other end of something. So did Cheryl, as her memoir chronicles a grueling hike along the Pacific Crest Trail from southern California to the Oregon-Washington border. However, in Wild, she traverses much more than trail miles, she also…
Well. Just watch this video:
Cheryl Strayed recently came out as the funny and wise voice of Sugar of The Rumpus’s Dear Sugar advice column. It should come as no surprise then that in the face of physical adversity and the most crushing emotional hardships, Strayed delivers neither whines nor wallops, but humility, courage, and insight. And one more thing: warmth. Wild isn’t a story of one woman’s quest to plumb the depths of her sorrow with an extrahuman journey; it’s a universal story about being confused, feeling lost, and sorting yourself out with back-breaking work (her frame pack, Monster, weighed half as much as her!).
Reading Wild makes you realize that there’s no magical shortcut between where you are and where you want to be, and thank goodness. It’s a book you want to give to a friend, like a talisman that imparts the completely ordinary, but precious power of living the life you’ve got.
