Tuning out KFKD

In reading Lamott, I am constantly reminded that her story is not just about writing, but about living. I love the chapter on Radio Station KFKD.  The author is alluding to the stream of messages that play in our ears that can get in the way of writing, creating or for that matter doing any work that is purposeful to you. " Out of right speaker in your inner ear will come the endless stream of self-aggrandizement...of how much more open and gifted and brilliant and humble one is. Out of the left speaker will be the rap songs of self loathing."(Lamott, pg 116) This flow of input is certainly not helpful to reaching inside to find where your true story lies. In our experiences working on our literary vignettes over the past few weeks; I have noticed that the more we include our honest selves into our writing, the better the writing becomes. You can hear that true voice of the writer and even not knowing much about the process, we can realize that voice when we hear it. Writing about your true feelings and your real experiences and reading them out loud to someone one else, for goodness sake, feels vulnerable.  I think that is what the writing process is all about. By listening to our true voices we are aligning ourselves with our story. " This is what it means for us, for writers, is that we need to align ourselves with the river of the story, the river of unconscious, of memory and sensibility, of our characters' lives, which can then pour through us, the straw. When KFKD is playing , we are at cross purposes with the river."( Lamott, pg 121)  I think we can see this as readers, writers and teachers. If we can tune out the flow of negative self talk; we can hear so much more.