Mary Catherine Bateson, who previously wrote a biography of her parents Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead, tackles the meaning of her own and four other women's lives in this watershed work. She contends that improvisation is the key to living in our complicated times. While pondering her experiences as an author and college administrator, she looks at the lives of a dancer and writer; an entrepreneur; a psychiatrist; and a black college president for clues on how to handle change, multiple roles, failures and setbacks, and the constant refocusing of one's energy.
What do refugees, foreclosed farmers, and displaced housewives have in common? Bateson writes: "Men and women who assumed they had chosen a path in life . . . found that it disappeared in the underbrush." There is a long ordeal (a real test of patience) as one waits for these breakdowns to become breakthroughs. This is one of the aspects of composing a life. She continues:
"It is time now to explore the creative potential of interrupted and conflicted lives, where energies are not narrowly focused or permanently pointed toward a single ambition. These are not lives without commitment, but rather lives in which commitments are continually refocused and redefined."
Composing a Life is an ideal resource to encourage those who tend to find change daunting and who yearn for the good old days when things seemed less fragmentary and transitory.
