Here We Go
Back when I had long hair and didn’t need glasses or sleep, I spent an afternoon stretched out on a blanket with some friends at an all day outdoor music thing not far from the Golden Gate Bridge. I had just moved to San Francisco from Philadelphia. After the Counting Crows wrapped up their set and roadies took the stage for a turnover, I started asking my new pals questions.
If your mother wrote a book about you, what would it be called?
What moment of your life do you wish everyone could experience?
If you could go back to one year and do it differently, what year would you pick?
Matt laughed while lighting a cigarette and said his mom would call her book about him, The Disappointment. Mary said she wished everyone could live through seeing their dad, wasted, throw a punch at a cocktail party. I just wish people could feel what that felt like. It was the end of my childhood and I was 9. Tim said, without making eye contact, that he’d have gone back to senior year in college and been more protective of the pledges in his fraternity, making us wonder what had happened. Eventually, Lenny Kravitz walked on stage, we stood up and before the first note filled the air, my friend Annie leaned into me and said, that was kind of amazing — you’re good at asking questions.
Asking questions is my favorite thing. After twelve years writing books and touring the country doing readings, starting next month, starting conversations will be my full time job, times two. PBS and I have been working on a prime time interview show together called Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan and PRX and I have been producing season one of a weekly podcast called Kelly Corrigan Wonders (which will also air on KQED and other NPR stations).
I’ll be here on Medium every Tuesday morning starting in October with a post about what I’m learning from the podcast and the PBS show with my guests Bryan Stevenson, James Corden and Jennifer Garner. Our conversations touched on so many of the ideas — and ideals — that hold America together: equality, justice, community. We also talked about our lives as parents, professionals and creatives. I got choked up, they got choked up, there was much laughter and many a-has.
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