When a Woman Writes About Her Life

“If a woman writes about herself, she’s a narcissist. If a man does the same thing, he’s describing the human condition.”

--Emily Gould

Emily Gould’s book, “And the Heart Says Whatever” is a collection of essays about what it’s like to be her—and by showing us her one life we learn a lot about –not just other lives, but about how to, maybe, think about our own lives.

She also said--and I love this, “When women are honest about their experiences, it’s destabilizing.”

 Right? 

As I continue to write about cancer and caregiving and love and sex, and about work and clothes and money and fear, I swing between trying to be helpful and being both destabilized and destabilizing. 

So, I also ask: Am I writing one woman’s story or am I describing the human condition?

In some ways, I think it’s not my job to decide, but rather that is yours to discern. As we learn from Alanon, “Take what you like and leave the rest.” My hope—and my prayer—is that by writing about my fears and flaws I can offer you a way to deal here in CancerLand.