(ThySistas.com) For many years Kerry Washington has been the walking embodiment of grace, poise, and class while also giving the vibe of the laidback girl next door we’d love to kick it with. Unlike some celebrities, the details of her personal life are not a public conversation. This is something I have always admired about her; she found a way to keep boundaries between who she is in public, and her personal space. In a well thought out Memoir she has decided to allow us to see who is in private, and how it has affected her public face. Kerry Washington had the foundation of who she is shaken to the core, and took the reader along with her on the journey to discover and embrace self.
“Often when I hear “How are you?” I am overcome with blind rage. My throat gets tight, my heart races, I feel hot behind my eyes, and my jaw clenches with the hopes of muzzling a response that will require an apology once this fit of anger passes.”
From appearance one would never know that Kerry Washington has struggled through her teenage years while fighting to perfect perfectionism. We would never think she encountered so many of the same issues we face with communication and openness within her own family. The internal issue of the question, “how are you?” is something so many of us encounter but may have never thought to express openly. As she battles to find balance, acceptance, and honesty within self she allows the reader to safely engage with themselves regarding the same issues. Sometimes you don’t understand how much or how quickly you are sinking until someone shows you through their battle to reach the surface.
“How are you? Who are you? What do you want? How do you feel? I have struggled with these questions for a long time because these questions have been unimaginably difficult for me to answer. “
Kerry Washington wrote a book that is laidback, down to earth, and engaging. Though it is about her life, she makes you want to keep reading. You want to know more about her, you want to know how she resolves her conflicts, more importantly you will find yourself cheering for her to be okay.
“People-pleasing and perfectionism were still signature parts of my personality – the shapeshifting I’d learned as a child had created in me a desire to get it “right” instead of digging for the unknown.”
This book is important especially for Black woman. She centers herself…her womanhood, and her Blackness throughout the journey and it is why this book feels so relatable as a Black woman. It will allow us to come together in our sister circles and discuss the journey we are on…and how we are relating to the “water” we find ourselves wading in. It gives us a way to look at self, and even our name, and decide what parts of us are open to others…and what part of us is reserve solely for self. This is necessary to balance self against ever space by which we reside.
I first fell in love with Kerry Washington as an actress when she played the feisty yet brutally honest sister in “Save The Last Dance”. I have been a fan of her career ever sense, however I feel in reading her book I was allowed to be introduced to the woman, and I am cheering for her. There is something for everyone in this book, but it is definitely a gem for Black women.
“Thicker Than Water” can be found at your local bookstore, on Amazon, and anywhere books are sold.
Staff Writer; Christian Starr
May connect with this sister over at Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitter; http://twitter.com/MrzZeta.