Lost & Found

Since I’m deep in the process of writing my own memoir, I was awed by Schulz’s brilliant structure.

She organized her book into three parts: "Lost," which explores the comic, frustrating, heartbreaking experience of losing things, grounded in her account of her father’s death; "Found" examines the experience of discovery, from new ideas to new planets, grounded in her story of falling in love; and finally, "And," which illustrates the way these events happen in conjunction and imply the inevitable: life immerses us in grief and suffering, beauty and grandeur all at once. 

I felt a kinship at Schulz’s expression of dislike for the “well-intentioned” euphemisms for dying.

Her visual explanations of what well-wishers really feel and the almost cinematic movement through her experience in losing her father reveal a skilled writer. I’m drawn more to fine writing than trodding through a stranger’s personal journey. The confusion of grief is shared in a scholarly manner including literary references that show loss is a time-worn path.

The self-assignment as torch bearer for our focus of grief is another mantle I recognized. I have found that the legacy of the one we’ve lost becomes a… show more.