Released with Peggy Cook
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In this very personal episode Peggy Cook reads from her memoir Released: Walking from Blame and Shame into Wholeness. See her art and author bio at her website.
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what have been the elements that people have responded to the most that have outlined the universality of what you have to say. I think shame and grief, not from my ex-religious people, but the shame of being different, whatever that difference may be. This is daring to tell the podcast where writers read their true stories of personal daring and where we talk about writing and life. I am Michelle Rado. How do I even begin to introduce this writer in this book to you today. I have been thinking about this for quite some time. Over a year, in fact, since the time that I first found out about this book and started reading this book, and time itself is one of the themes I considered. How long does it take us to read a book? And I say this in the grandsons with that "we", but of course, I mean me. How long does it take me to read a book? A long time, and the more I like it, often the slower it goes because I want to absorb it. I really like the contrast of reading just a little bit and then going off and doing something else because I think that it's that juxtaposition of reading and life that helps it cook in my head. And the book we're going to hear today has been a real slow cooker for me. Cook is the perfect word too because that's her name, Peggy Cook. A person I first met at a writing workshop given by my friend the writer Nina Lichtenstein. I don't know how Peggy first found Nina, but many writers do seem to find their way to Nina. I will say that Peggy's story is intense, and I think that's because it resonated with me so deeply. It was sort of like if my own soul had been plopped into a different body, this was how I would have had to cope because we all must cope with the hardware we are born into. I'll describe more about that in a minute as we get into the episode, but in thinking again about this experience of reading this book and this idea of slowness, maybe I need to take it in all the more slowly because in fact reading a memoir is like a fast paced embodiment of someone else's life. It's like living their story at 10 times real speed. Three pages for memories of being a toddler, five pages for bringing back tiny scenes from an adolescence, 218 pages to make sense of a life because I think as writers that's what happens. Our experiences simmer in our head. They live their own subconscious lives there as we sort of act out like a marionette puppet, but then at some point comes a moment when we might ask ourselves how? How did this happen? And that lifetime of experiences are lived again at a breakneck pace when we may risk approaching what feels like a slippery bank over rushing rapids. Afraid the current of emotion may sweep us away and slowly we dare to perhaps put on some cleats and dip in. The pace may seem slow, but this is a crazy ride life. We have to live it in real time, but with the pen we can regain what I might call an illusion of control. Ha ha. Peggy that one is for you, because the idea of life being an illusion is endemic of her true story about the simple but immense and human capability we all have to change our mind. I feel as if if I haven't done it already. This is your official intensity warning. Peggy's story is tough. Maybe you'll need to take it slowly just like I did, but remember just like her, you are free to say no at any time. That is another little teaser that I love about our conversation today by saying no, no, no, when she needed to in doing the slow work of recovery, she was able to take control of how she might say maybe or even okay to exactly what she needed at the right moment for her. Okay, all this vagary aside, please meet a most intrepid soul courageous writer and delightful person Peggy Cook and her memoir released walking from blame and shame into wholeness. Sometimes the conditions or circumstances we are born into are so distinctly formative. We spend a lifetime untangling. The writer that we will hear from today had not one, but two of those things. She was born with club feet and was born into a religion that espouses quote radical reliance on God for healing from any physical or even mental emotional ailments. Released walking from blame and shame into wholeness is a book that I have been reading and rereading for over a year now knowing that we were going to have this conversation, which is so impactful. To me, we will dig into more of that as we go, but all of this to say hi Peggy. Hi Michelle. Welcome. Here we are. Thank you so much. Every time I talk with you is a treat, so this is no different and it's extra special. Your book has been out for five years now and so I just want to say like what is it like for well congratulations and what is it like having
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