Lorrie Moore - "Thank You For Having Me"

          After hearing Lorrie Moore’s speech, I felt that her writing and way of talking were calm, collected and had an interesting tempo to her language that matched the rhythm of her writing.  Upon going, I had never read any of her work or pieces of writing before, but now I definitely have another author added to my favorite writing list.  When she first came out to read to the crowd, she came up upon the podium with such a nonchalant aura that what she was about to read was certainly unexpected – her writing was composed of these wonderful and perfected “one-liner” sort of sentences, whereas her voice complimented the lines in order to draw them out with a witty joke from ordinary day to day experiences.  

          Much of what she read from her story Thank You for Having Me was full of unexpected truths and humor that I feel up to this point, only Lorrie Moore can really pull off.  For instance, she read us a part in her story where her daughter, Nikki, like the typical fifteen-year old teenager would state that she really did not care what she wore – rather, as the speaker and her daughter were driving off to their babysitter’s wedding she stated the reality of the matter – “the person that needed to be careful about what she wore was me.”  It was not in it so much that younger people, or the younger generation should really worry what they wore, but that as they got older, would need to consider.  

          Although many of the parts in her writing are covered in a tint of lament, she still finds the humor is these small moments, such as when she read,  “You were alone when you were born, alone when you die – really absolutely alone when you are dead.  I learned to be alone in-between, and if you quickly forgot it would come back to you.  Aloneness was like riding a bike…at gunpoint…with a gun in your own hand.  Aloneness was the air in your own tires, the wind in your hair – you didn’t have to go looking for it with open arms – with open arms you fell off the bike.”  The entire way that she read this – the entire tone of sorts was read with such a lyrical rhythm to it that, although the tone and language were full of lament, you absolutely had to love every bit and piece of it.