Forget Prayers, Bring Cake: A Conversation with Merissa Nathan Gerson

How to Survive the End of the World

Society & Culture

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2022

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this special bonus episode, we bring you audio from a virtual event hosted by Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis, an evening of conversation between Merissa Nathan Gerson, author of Forget Prayers, Bring Cake: A Single Woman's Guide to Grieving, and our own Autumn Brown who had the honor of writing the book's foreword. The event was moderated by Andrea Tritschler.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello beloved survivors. This is Autumn. Last year I had the honor to write the
0:20.6	forward of a beautiful book about grief called Forget Prayer Spring Cake. This book is written by
0:31.4	Marissa Nathan Gerson. It is a ritual and a prayer. It is a guide to grieving written through the
0:42.8	lens of a single woman. So it's not a guide to grieving for single people but rather a guide
0:50.7	to grieving from the lessons of singleness and it is an incredible book. Back in September 2021,
1:06.1	Marissa and I were hosted by Moon Palace Books which is my local bookstore here in Minneapolis. They
1:17.4	hosted us in a virtual event where we both got to read selections of the book and then talk with one
1:25.4	another about grief and loss and yearning and wisdom and it was so rich and so beautiful and I just
1:39.0	have the utmost respect and care for Marissa. Fortunately the event was recorded and so we are bringing
1:48.2	you the audio from that event today as a bonus episode. So we hope you enjoy it.
2:05.5	I'm going to kick us off with the reading of The Fords that I wrote for Marissa's amazing book
2:11.9	and I'll say to you, I've actually never read this aloud before. I mean I think I've read it to myself. I
2:19.4	read it in my head a lot when I was writing it but I've not like read it for an audience so this
2:25.5	will be a new experience for me too. So The Fords begins with this beautiful quote from Lucille Clifton's
2:34.5	Blessing the Boats that says it is your own lush self you hunger for and here goes my introduction.
2:47.1	I was dragged kicking and screaming into my divorce. I could not accept that my marriage was over
2:56.4	and for months I resisted the reality that my partner of 16 years had already left the building.
3:04.5	I couldn't accept a future I might face alone as a single mother of three children. I couldn't
3:11.2	accept the present reality that I was already alone and had been for some time. I was trapped
3:17.9	in fear-based loops. I lost 30 pounds in the span of three months because I could barely eat without
3:24.8	vomiting. I was crying all the time. I resisted in every way possible this ending.
3:35.2	Eventually I shifted towards acceptance and this after some time allowed for movement.
	...

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