When I got home from Kansas City, I unpacked my book-tour suitcase and put it away. I returned the folder with my notes to the closet. I’m finished with what was a fascinating 10 weeks on and off the road. I spoke around the country, from Florida to Missouri, from small bookstore groups to considerable crowds at Jewish Community Centers around the country and at meetings of volunteer women who (as far as I can tell) can and should run this country. The power of the women I met, in Chicago and Massachusetts, and elsewhere, is just amazing. As we get older, we take care of each other. We consider not only our problems, but also the problems of the people with whom we share our community. I am in awe.
I also found that the people who came to listen, from Boca Raton to Greenwich to San Diego, all had similar outlooks when it came to family, and similar difficulties. I came to believe that once you enter a home and close the door, people are more alike than they are different. There’s a shared world of pain, and a shared world of joy.
I’m now going to hunker down and get to work on the next book, which is about the relationships between and among brothers and sisters in adulthood. It’s called Unfinished Business: Staying Close to your Adult Siblings, and I’m using a method similar to what I did for Walking on Eggshells. Wish me luck. My website is still up, of course (www.janeisay.com).
