See the sidebar quote? Over there. To your right. From Erica Jong.

Jong is famous as the writer of “Fear of Flying,” a 480-page tome published in 1973. I read it in my undergrad Modern American Lit class.

It was vile. I hated it. Not sure I read the entire thing, yet still managed to ace the test. Even without reading it all, I could guess what was on the next page.

The same thing that was on every page before. A gross account of protagonist Isadora Wing’s promiscuous encounters as she traipsed around Europe. Vile, I tell you.

Quintessential women’s lib. Unrestrained, revolutionary, Boomerish. Must be why my overeducated class of Gen-Xers was assigned to read it. There could be no other reason, save more than 18 million copies in print.

Fast forward to 2011. I’m planning this blog, working on the inaugural post Maiden Flight. Fear of Flying flits across my mind, mostly because of the title.

Here I was, preparing to launch into the unknown in a way I hadn’t before. It could fly. It could bomb. It could lead to something. It could lead to nothing. I was afraid, excited, nervous.

On a whim I entered her name on Brainy Quote: Erica Jong. What appeared next was love in alphabetical order.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.

Like.

And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.

Like. Like.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

Will someone please plaster this to my site—and my forehead?

Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.

Maybe I’ve misread this woman.

I have accepted fear as part of life—specifically fear of change… I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.

You didn’t turn back and neither will I.

I write lustily and humorously. It isn’t calculated; it’s the way I think. I’ve invented a writing style that expresses who I am.

And you opened the door for us to write as we are. So I may not care for Isadora’s sexual diary? She may not care for my Bible verses.

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.

Love.

No one has ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.

Swoon. And she used the word alas.

Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty and I’ll show you a man.

Amen, sister.

Solitude is un-American.

Prescient creature spoke the basis for social media decades before we all posted our status updates.

I scurried to the basement, to my boxes of books. Searched for my copy. Alas, it must have fallen victim to an earlier purge.

Checked the library and reserved all her books. Surprisingly, Fear of Flying is no longer among them. Fell victim to a purge there as well.

Her poetry and other books remain. Her poetry is what I prefer, from “Fruits & Vegetables“ to “Love Comes First.” I skip the sexually loaded lines, as I imagine she might skip the Bible verses if she read me.

No matter. We’re family now, she and I. Grace abounds between relations.

The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 1:14 NIV

Everyone I know’s been so good to me. Twenty-five years old. My mother, God rest her soul. I just wanna Fly…

You Are There by Erica Jong

(from “Love Comes First,” ©2009, pp. 13-14)

 

You are there.

You have always been

there.

Even when you thought

you were climbing

you had already arrived.

Even when you were

breathing hard,

you were at rest.

Even then it was clear

you were there.

 

Not in our nature

to know what

is journey and what

arrival.

Even if we knew

we would not admit.

Even if we lived

we would think

we were just

germinating.

 

To live is to be

uncertain.

Certainty comes

at the end.