Ladies We Love: Laura Munson
March 31, 2010 at 1:26 pm, by Sonia Harmon
You might not recognize Laura Munson at first glance, but there’s a good chance you heard about her popular essay in the New York Times’ Modern Love column last summer, Those Aren’t Fighting Words, Dear. She wrote about the day her husband told her “I don’t love you anymore. I’m not sure I ever did. I’m moving out.” Her response? “I don’t buy it.”
That essay grew into Laura’s new memoir, This Is Not The Story You Think It Is…, which hits stores tomorrow. She wrote throughout that rough patch in her marriage (they are happily together today), and now she hopes that her writing might help someone else. Given the overwhelming response to Laura’s essay (at one point it crashed the New York Times comment section) and the buzz surrounding her book, we think she’ll be able to do just that.
What makes me a lady: I like to think that people are the same everywhere when it really comes down to it. Whether you’re at a ladies luncheon, or a third world country open-air market, basic human kindness is our common thread. I think “mean people” don’t really “suck” like the bumper sticker says, as much as they’re just broken and in pain. And I think we can help each other by doing our best not to gossip, but to practice empathy and kindness. Vulnerability too.
Favorite guilty pleasure: First edition rare books.
Three things on my life list: To travel the world with my family, to see my novels published, and to build an equestrian/writing retreat center in Montana.
If I could have a superpower, it would be: Shape shifting, because then I could really try on different existences, not just imagine them. What a wonderful writer’s tool for creating empathetic characters—human and otherwise. I’d love to become a homesteader in Central Illinois so I could meet my great-grandmother and see what it was to live that sort of deliberate and brave life. Or a snow goose and migrate in a flock of 200,000 to Costa Rica for the winter. Or a mountain so I could live out the other side of E.E. Cummings’, “And I wake to the perfect patience of mountains,” which is what I see when I open my eyes each morning. Or to morph into my 20 year old body for a few days (preferably on a beach), but with my 40 year old brain.
Ladies I admire: Hildegard of Bingen, Julian of Norwich, Pema Chodron, Terry Tempest Williams, Annie Dillard, Joni Mitchell, Jane Goodall, Renee Fleming, Christiane Amanpour, Amy Einhorn, and any writer who perseveres against the odds.
Categories: Fun | Tags: books, Ladies We Love, Laura Munson, marriage, This Is Not The Story You Think It Is... | 2 Comments
2 Responses to “Ladies We Love: Laura Munson”
Written on July 23, 2010 at 12:22 pm, by La Belette Rouge
1. That needs to be a new bumper sticker:“mean people” don’t really “suck, they’re just broken and in pain.
2. I want to come to your horsey/writing center.
3. Brilliant super power!
4. You are on my list of ladies that I admire.
xo
Written on July 23, 2010 at 10:27 pm, by Stephanie Baffone
Laura,
Can you put me on your list as first to sign up when you have that Montana equestrian writing retreat open? That is a dream!
I was just pushing your book on a woman in my practice today who is struggling in her marriage. You prove the point being at peace is more profound and satisfying that being “right.”
Wishing you all the best!