Live Ablaze: And Light Up the World
Written and Narrated By: Sarah Davison-Tracy
Length: 5 hrs and 5 mins
Catches its stride for the last half
I pretty much didn’t know what to expect from Live Ablaze. The first half reminded me of some of Brené Brown’s works, and indeed, she’s quoted a bit throughout the book. At first, I thought: Heck! I could just be listening to Brown, and I’d probably be happier/more satisfied. Brown, after all, goes into so much more depth, has her funny Texas charm, and has oodles of research to back herself up whereas, as Sarah Davison-Tracy is more about the fuzzy thoughts and feelings, things that aren’t easily quantified.
Plus, her personal stories rather jumped out and didn’t seem to fit in. She goes into her eating disorder at great length, and I couldn’t see how any of that fit into a journey readily accessible to the rank and file. I still dunno why she added it, as it appeared to be a stand-alone story that wasn’t woven into her narrative. That and a few other personal anecdotes didn’t mesh seamlessly, so I wasn’t quite sure what to think. Not to mention, I wasn’t sure what the point of the book was: Become your truest self with blah blah blah? Help yourself by blah blah blah-ing?
But then we got to the last half (maybe longer) where Sarah kinda drops lines here and there which show that when she says “tribe”, she means it! After recently listening to Girl, Stop Apologizing where R. Hollis touts her love of multiculturalism but basically hangs out with only needy white women, Sarah came off as a breath of fresh air. She jumped at spending some of her formative years by living in India, for cripes sake! And that was only the start of her journey to help the world.
Because Live Ablaze is really about reaching out to the world at large and helping out. It’s about finding what you’re good at and using it to help others less fortunate. It doesn’t have to be a big thing: You can be a hairdresser but give the homeless haircuts on your time off. Have a lot of fashion sense? How about starting a line that’s super savvy on pain-free garment-making, and while you’re at it, educating people on fair trade ideas, on the terror of slave-like labor? She has sooooo many practical ideas that are indeed quite awe-inspiring, if not flat-out inspiring, awe or not.
The audiobook, which I thought was initially about finding and doing a little bit of good here and there, dreams big. You’ll find that you’ve been shooting low, no matter how large you think your aspirations are. I was feeling pretty small there as I listened to it. (And by the way, Sarah, while not having the greatest voice in the world, does a nifty job with narrating her own work; she definitely adds enthusiasm to some pretty heartfelt prose).
I dunno. When all was said and done, tho’, I felt a bit sheepish in that I don’t REALLY wanna go out in the world, doing good as I go. What’s wrong with just wanting to have a little website devoted to audiobooks, with Accomplices, both fuzzy and not?
Hey! Y’all are my “tribe”!!!!!
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