Reading Response 13: "The Pleasure of Letting Go"

"The Pleasure of Letting Go" by Kyoko Mori was truly an enjoyable read. When I first heard the title, I imagined this story was going to be about loss and grief, rather like "I'm Just Getting to the Disturbing Part" by Steven Church. So I was happily surprised to learn that the "letting go" in Mori's short story really was supposed to be a "pleasure". I love the way she spoke of raising the birds; carefully tending each little one, slowly raising it and training it until it could look after itself. Her whole job was to get the little birds to the point where she could let them go, just as a parent raises a child (or an author writes a book) with the expectation that they will one day leave. It's sad and hard, but at the same time one of the most worthwhile jobs in the world.

The way Mori compares saving lives and raising birds to writing was a brilliant analogy. While bird watching was poetry, raising the babies she considered prose, a job full of "effort" and "discipline". And that seems to resonate with Anne Lamott's "Bird by Bird" where she suggests writing a little bit each day, faithfully. If one doesn't sit down and make an effort, than neither bird nor book will ever get off the ground and thrive, and I think that is one of the most important things for any writer to remember. Writing takes work, but in the end when your books are out there, flying through others thoughts, "becom[ing] what they were always meant to be", then that is one of the most fulfilling experiences in the world, worth everything you've put into those little winged words (Mori 169).