Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Abstract
The Lady in the Van is a movie featuring Maggie Smith as an eccentric homeless woman of uncertain origins called Miss Shepherd. She lives in a van, and she parks her van in Alan Bennett’s London driveway for 15 years. It was meant to be for a couple of months.
Alan Bennett, who lives by himself and earns a living as a writer, is portrayed as two selves. He is divided between his ‘writing self’ and his ‘living self.’ He found the divide necessary because “Writing is talking to oneself.” By the end of the movie he integrates into one self because of all his adventures with the lady in the van. And his integrated self concludes, “You don’t put yourself in your writing, you find yourself there.” Writing to find yourself is an effective spiritual discipline, and I’m particularly interested in those who write to find themselves in Christ.
Recommended Citation
Morse, MaryKate, "Writing as a Spiritual Discipline" (2016). Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary. 223.
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/gfes/223
Comments
Originally published at https://missioalliance.org/writing-spiritual-discipline/