Chely Wright:

I am standing up for myself, because if I don't, I will never be whole.  That my story might help others find comfort, safety, and understanding is a beautiful by-product of truth.

Like Me, p. 264

Chely Wright:

The only true choices in my story are that I chose to hide and now I'm choosing to stop lying to myself and to the rest of the world.  My plans for a normal and happy life never stood a chance when I was choosing to hide.

Like Me, p. 258

Chely Wright:

I knew that the only way I could be healthy was to stop hiding and running from the fact that I was gay.

Like Me, p. 220

Chely Wright:

When you're gay you realize that, for the most part, a lot of the world hates you without having ever met you.

Like Me, p. 213

Chely Wright:

The military places a high value on honor, integrity, honesty, and valor. The policy of "don't ask, don't tell" seems to be the antithesis of those ideals.

Like Me, p. 198

Chely Wright:

Every day is a battle when you hide.

Like Me, p. 139

Chely Wright:

It takes a lot of work to cover up an entire part of one's life...

Like Me, p. 69

Bookin' It in 2010

I read the following 18 books in 2010. The titles in bold were particularly influential, inspiring or interesting.

1. Ignore Everybody: And 39 Other Keys to Creativity - Hugh MacLeod

2. Time to Write: More Than 100 Professional Writers Reveal How to Fit Writing into Your Busy Life - Kelly L. Stone

3. Lunch Poems - Frank O'Hara

4. Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back - Frank Schaeffer

5. Sinners Welcome - Mary Karr

6. Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking - David Bayles & Ted Orland

7. Temper - Beth Bachmann

8. Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess - Matthew Paul Turner

9. Drops Like Stars - Rob Bell

10. The Misunderstood God: The Lies Religion Tells About God - Darin Hufford

11. Newspaper Blackout - Austin Kleon

12. Hear No Evil: My Story of Innocence, Music, and the Holy Ghost - Matthew Paul Turner

13. The Liars' Club - Mary Karr

14. Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer - Chely Wright

15. Bicycles: Love Poems - Nikki Giovanni

16. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible - A. J. Jacobs

17. Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in The Peoples Temple - Deborah Layton

18. Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions - Rachel Held Evans

Chely Wright:

I was raised to know the difference between right and wrong. Telling my story is the right thing to do.

Like Me, p. 3

Chely Wright:

I don’t feel like I’m coming out. I feel like I’m coming together.

Chely Wright:

Isn’t that the best thing you can ever imagine -- that your story can facilitate ease for someone else?

Reading on the Run

I packed three books in my vacation bags last week – A. J. Jacobs’ The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer by Chely Wright, and Philip Yancey’s Finding God in Unexpected Places. While I only touched the latter, I enjoyed the little that I did read and look forward to picking up the others in the near future.