Comparing Lamott's No Ideas But In People And Places

William Carlos Williams once said that there are “no ideas but in things,” while Anne Lamott states “No spirituality but in people and places.” These two phrases might sound different from each other at first, but allude to the same concept. They both agree that ideas and spirituality comes out of people and places. This concept intercepts into Lamott’s central theme of Traveling Mercies: God’s grace works through people and places. This theme can be seen in various places of the book, but especially in the case with Lamott’s interactions with Sam, her son. God’s grace is shown through Sam because he teaches Lamott the qualities of forgiveness and appreciation, which are both characteristics of God’s grace. Majority of Anne Lamott’s early life, she struggles to believe in faith and hesitates to let God into her life. This is mostly because Lamott grew up in a family where no one believed in God. Her father describes Presbyterians, including his parents, as “God’s frozen people” (8). His experience with religion heavily influenced Lamott’s
During a pediatrician visit, Sam’s blood tests came back abnormal. The doctors ruled out every obvious sickness and decide to send more blood test to the oncology headquarters’ laboratory (161). Anne Lamott was beyond dreadful while witnessing numerous blood taken away from Sam. She admit to feel like: “I felt terror like I’d never felt before, and rage, rage: I saw myself cutting through her neck with an electric carving knife. I wanted to shout that he didn’t have any more blood, that she’d already drunk it all up because she was a pig, and that she was not to bother us again” (162). During this incident, she turned to God and prayed. Lamott did not care if she was in the bathroom taking an urine sample from Sam. She practically begged God to not let anything happen to Sam. She begged God to let other awful people to go instead of Sam