An Encomium to My Sister

It is a truism in my family that my sister has been known for going a step too far. She likes to push conversations to points where people in the room feel slightly uncomfortable, and she is good at knowing what will make others squirm. But this trait is probably what makes her writing so powerful. She takes an image, a scene, and cuts out the extraneous details to focus on something (likely to be something thorny and uncomfortable) that is universally familiar, and then she ties up her story with a moment of personal metanoia.


Occasionally she has written about our family, and the thought crossed my mind that it would be interesting to tell a counterpoint version to her experience, but then I realized I lacked her courage to pinpoint the truth, as well as her gift to craft a well-written blog post. She has a writer’s knack for bringing life to her words with imagery and insight to her readers with well chosen phrasing, although she might leave out some details in preference to others, or embellish some facts. In one jocular reply to a commenter, she claims she can't tell lies. As a child, this was because her dimple always ratted her out when she tried to lie. As an adult, she doesn't lie, but edits her experiences, retells them in the distinctive voice of her online persona, and focuses on her spiritual dramas to craft interesting, enlightening, and well told stories.

I hope she continues to tell them, even if they may not always be what we want to hear.