nollequeen's Full Review: Shirley MacLaine - Out On A Leash: Exploring The N...
Shirley MacLaine has had quite a life. I eagerly read her first book, “Don’t Fall Off The Mountain” when I was 9 or 10 in the early 70’s. Hiking in Bhutan, she barely escaped capture as she was chased through the Himalayas by revolutionary forces. She poked around in India, hung out with the Masai in Africa, communed with the Spirit World and coolest of all, was buddies with Bella Abzug. In short, she was the quintessential female role model for a 10 year old.
I stuck with Shirley over the years as things began to get progressively weirder. Past lives, o.k. I’m open minded, I can go with that. Meditation and chakra alignment, not so strange really, if you’re from California. UFO’s: getting stranger still, but still somewhat understandable. If people from other worlds were seeking to commune with us, Shirley would be a good person to contact. I can understand that.
But this? “Out On a Leash?” Spare me. My hero has turned into a little old lady who has written a public love letter to her dog. What can she be thinking? The first chapter filled me with horror. It was like a train wreck or a horrible car accident, I was shocked but couldn’t stop reading. The chapters alternate, one in Shirley’s voice and the other in the dog’s. Terry, the dog, refers to Shirley as M.M., short for “Mistress Mother.” Here’s a sample: “My MM keeps asking herself. What is love? From what I can see, most humans don’t know the answer to that question. They don’t know how to love, or do it for the wrong reasons, and what starts being about what they think is love and romance usually ends up being about money. My MM’s questions about love are the reason I’m in her life…what I’m really doing is trying to teach her to be simpler in the ways of joy, simpler in the ways of love; simpler in the ways of life.”
Terry, of course, if you haven’t already guessed was in a past life the Egyptian dog god, Annubis; which is how she and Shirley came to know each other. In this life, Terry is a spiritual parent to Shirley. Unconditional love seems to come as a new experience to Shirley, “I have had many female friends whom I enjoyed because they understood the power of allowing others just to be, the power of patience, and even the power of subservience at certain times. But I’ve never had a girlfriend like this. She is my confidante, my sense of home, and my deepest venture into the intimacy of myself. She has taken on a road away from this world into a new world of happiness and inner peace. The happiness comes from what I’ve found; the inner peace comes from what I did not even know was there before.”
If you had a mind to, “Out on a Leash” (OOAL) is easily a book you could read in one night. Given my initial cynical attitude, it has taken me several weeks. In some ways, I think Shirley has finally gone too far. Like many other prolific writers, I think she may have reached the stage where she believes that any serious thought she might have is worthy of a book. In this case, I’m not entirely sure that I agree. OOAL in large part, reads like an extended Hallmark card. On the other hand, it has a simple basic Annie Dillard-like truth at its heart: that if we are open to the experience, and listen quietly enough we can hear the voice of God speaking through all living creatures. Who could find fault with that?
Schmaltzy though it may be (particularly the photo section which contains endless photos of Terry and other dogs, looking cutely at the camera), it’s an interesting look at where Shirley finds herself these days. Having trekked through Napal and communed with other worlds, she finally discovers Oz, only to realize as Dorothy did, that it was in her own backyard all along.
Shirley, my former role model for adventure, is now a role model for old age. Sounds cynical and depressing, I know. Maybe I need a dog….
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