A Marriage Made in Heaven
WHEN THE CELEBRATED Christian writer Anne Lamott and her partner, Neal Allen, bought a house together in Fairfax, California, he filled all the alcoves, corners, and mantles with Buddhist and Hindu statues. Then, though it wasn’t exactly competitive, she went around and put an image of Jesus or Mary next to each of them.
Now, during a conversation with Lion’s Roar, Neal teases her. “You missed a couple of spots, but I don’t want to say where.”
“I’ll find them,” she teases right back.
Theirs is an interfaith marriage, but the truth is neither spouse stays in their religious lane. Neal brought some Mary imagery of his own into the relationship, while Anne brought buddhas. Plus, they’re both game for some Hindu kirtan singing.
Yet there are religious differences between them. Anne says her path is about “me and Jesus, like Casper the Friendly Ghost, whereas Neal is very intellectual and knows about every possible religion.”
“We have our own profound commitment to our own spirituality, but it’s like a Venn diagram,” says Anne. In the center, “everything is the same, just with different vocabularies and focuses. We’re both immersed in what we’d call the holy moment or the now or the immediacy of being in beauty. I experience it through Jesus and Mary. Neal experiences it in more esoteric ways.”
Sometimes, Neal says,
