Episcopal Life
art&soul/In Review
October 2003
MEDITATIONS FOR MISFITS By Marcia Ford
Jossey Bass, 165 pp., $12.95
Marcia
Ford wrote in Memoir of a Misfit about finding a home in the Episcopal Church, the
roundabout way.
In a
semi-sequel, Meditations for Misfits, she builds on her self-image as a
non-belonger. She has learned to embrace that part of herself that didn’t fit
in her “cartoon” family, her “safe” charismatic church, her society—although
she tried to the point of drinking and working too hard. In the Episcopal
Church, she said, for the first time, “no one looked at [her] funny.
On the theory
that she’s not the lonely only, Ford constructed meditations comprising a
rigorous quote, followed by her reflection, a bit of Scripture and a short
prayer. All four parts encourage acceptance of the child God made.
Each of the
more than 50 meditations is unified. The headnotes quote everyone from Whitman
(“Do I contradict myself?”) to Tolkien (“Not all those who wander are lost”).
Then each entry extends the quotation to mull over the topic, such as “The
Yearning Within,” “Falling in Holy Love,” and “In Hot Water.”
Ford’s
meditations are personal. She uses humor as a defense (as in her memoir), and
she leads with the vulnerable “I.” She rehearses some of the autobiographical
material covered in Memoir of a Misfit, but exploits the anecdotes for a
purpose.
That purpose
lies in the concluding prayers, each a variation on the one in her
introduction: “May God give you the courage and tenacity to hold on not only to
your faith but also to every idiosyncrasy that makes you the person you are...”
Reviewed by Martha K. Baker
© 2003
Episcopal Life. Reprinted with permission.
