Digging in the dirt, planting things, pushing rocks around, edging garden beds, axing branches and trees.

The Body, Brain, and Books: Eleven Questions with writer Sara Petersen

Welcome to another edition of The Body, Brain, & Books. If you enjoy reading these quick, insightful interviews brimming with wisdom and hope, please subscribe to Beyond!

Sara Petersen

is the author of Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencers. She has written about motherhood and feminism for The New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. She also writes the newsletter,

In Pursuit of Clean Countertops

, where she explores the cult of ideal motherhood. She lives in New Hampshire. 

1. What are you reading now?

R.O. Kwon’s The Incendiaries, which I missed when it came out, and which is making me think so much about fundamentalism and religious extremism!! The prose is also jawdroppingly beautiful and sparse and startling. 

2. What are your most beloved books from your youth? Did you ever hide any from your parents?

Oh gosh, Lucy Maud Montgomery’s entire oeuvre. Adored the Boxcar Children, My Side Of the Mountain, and every single Babysitter’s Club book. I have vivid sense memories of the row in my little public library where they all lived. And I recently rediscovered the two Gone Away books, which I had forgotten about and which I recently reread. A couple of kids basically find a lost mini lakeside retreat and rehab an old Victorian house - it’s hard to describe how utterly delightful it is.

3. What’s your favorite book to reread? Any that helped you through a dark time? 

Anything by James Herriot. Or Agatha Christie. But James Herriot is my go-to comfort read (any of his books - I go to my bookshelf, close my eyes, and grab one) when I’m depressed, overwhelmed, or grieving. Highly recommend for postpartum depression ha. 

4. What’s an article of clothing that makes you feel most like you?

I adore tomato red shoes. I own these, these, and an epic pair of red and pale pink adidas gazelles I can’t find online anymore. Every time I wear red shoes, I feel a little jolt of me-ness. And no matter how blah my outfit, I’ve got the shoes going for me, you know?

5. What’s the best piece of wisdom you've encountered recently?

Wow. Ummmm. Really just that no one ever cares as much about you as you think they do! We all are too wrapped up in our own bullshit to worry about what you said, what you did, or what you looked like. I feel like this can be summed up by “No One Cares What You Wear To The Wedding.” 

6. Tell me about any special relationship you’ve had with an animal, domestic or wild?

Last summer, a little tree frog visited my deck ON THE REGULAR and it was utterly magical. 

7. What's one thing you are happy worked out differently than you expected?

I desperately wanted to go to Skidmore College simply because my guidance counselor had offhandedly told me it was a “perfect fit for me” and I live for authority figures creating clarity for myself so I don’t have to. I didn’t get in and ended up at Emerson College, which was probably not a perfect fit for me lol, but I grew so much out of my comfort zone, lived in a city for the first time (I know, Boston barely qualifies as a city but I grew up in the middle of nowhere so this was big) which led me to be brave enough to ultimately move to NYC which was obviously hugely formative and maybe something I never would’ve done had I gone to a leafy college town school. 

8. Singing in the shower or dancing in the kitchen? Or another favorite way your body expresses itself?

Singing in the car! Like really going for it. I also am fully obsessed with the cathartic release of  The Class. If they ever ceased to exist, or if all of my favorite teachers retired, I would be unmoored. 

9. What are your hopes for yourself?

To trust myself enough to choose a winter puffer coat without polling 8 million of my closest friends. Lol. But truly, I just want to someday be a grownup who doesn’t live or die according to external validation. A girl can dream! 

10. What’s a kindness that changed your life?

Oooh I love this question. So many. I had a professor in graduate school who let me create an individualized me and her course which was all about late 19th century/early 20th century American authors, and I’ve never felt like my ideas were taken more seriously. This professor also kindly and frankly talked to me about the challenges of balancing life (and parenthood) with academia, which fundamentally impacted both my decision to pursue motherhood and my decision to not pursue academia. 

11. What’s a guiding force in your life?

This is not a light question! My kneejerk reaction is to say the outdoors which feels trite as hell. But I think it’s true! Digging in the dirt, planting things, pushing rocks around, edging garden beds, axing branches and trees. It all brings me completely into my body and outside of my hellishly analytical mind. Which is never not bliss and relief. I think some people feel smaller when they’re reminded of their status as soft animal bodies rather than thinking, self-conscious humans, but to me, it’s infinitely comforting. 

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If you enjoyed Sara’s questionnaire, you may also enjoy this one with Anne Kadet:

The Less I Think, The More I Know

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