I have to say I think the word ‘naturalization’ isn’t good. I have had this on my night stand since I was given it at my naturalization ceremony in 2008. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. I also embraced atheism early so I just never got into the habit of retaining information about the different types of religion and now I’m trying to catch up with the crazy. I didn’t meet a Jewish person until I was 18.
I remember it being a big deal when some Catholic kids enrolled in our high school. I think my upbringing in rural Scotland was so monolithic in terms of religion. I just get confused with all the different types and their origins. The concept of having faith in a higher power, some kind of symbol that gives you succor and moral guidance and all that is totally fine. “A Short History of Islam,” by William Montgomery Watt. I also used to have a therapist who was a student of Laing’s and so I had this fascinating insight into the man himself. Part of the reason I wanted to write “Baggage” was to show I am still on a journey, still learning and still affected deeply by trauma I’ve had in my past. His belief that madness or mental illness is not something to be locked away and hidden but that it is potentially a shamanic experience with much to teach us is fascinating to me. “I would play her as a man, not in drag or anything,” says the Tony-winning actor Alan Cumming, whose new memoir is “Baggage.” “Once you’ve played everything in ‘Macbeth’ (like I have) there are slim pickings in terms of great, complicated, messed-up Scots left to play!”
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