Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide

August 2005

Already Home: A Topography of Spirit and Place
Barbara Gates

1. In what ways is this memoir like others you have read recently? In what ways is it different? It reminds me of a couple of books we've read in past years: Terry Tempest William's Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place; and Nancy Mairs' Remembering the Bone House. What memoirs does it remind you of?

2. At several points, Gates says that her exploration is a quest, a journey. From what to what? She also insists on the importance of staying at home, the need to be rooted in a place. How can you take a journey if you stay in one place?

3. Gates and her husband have chosen to live in a place that isn't always safe, where there is noise and violence on the street, homeless people nearby, and even a rat in the refrigerator. Do you now live or have you ever lived in such a place? Why? What were/are the circumstances? How do you/did you feel about it?

4. What is skunk practice? Have you ever been faced with the need to do this? When? How? Why? What happened?

5. Have you ever been homeless, either voluntarily or involuntarily? What did it feel like?

6. Gates writes (p. 187): "I've walked the strees of this neighborhood without feeling through to the rawness underneath. When something is neglected long enough, it doesn't even seem to hurt. That's paved over. We need to know our hurts. They confront us with carelessness, teach us to take care." What does Gates gain from recognizing and naming these experiences? What's another word for "paving over"? What part of your experience do you "pave over"?

7. The basement meditation group comes to mean a great deal to Gates (p. 203). Is there any connection between sitting on a grave in the cemetery, living on a shellmound, and sitting meditation in that particular basement?

8. Perhaps the highest Buddhist and Christian virtue is compassion. In what ways does this virtue figure in this memoir? Why is compassion so hard?

9. What if the person who came and went next door to Gates had been man convicted of child molestation? Would she be able to feel compassion, do you think? How would you feel, in that case? What would you do?

10. Do you know the history of your house, your neighborhood, your community? If so, what is most interesting to you about it? How does this history (house/neighborhood/community) intersects with your own personal history?

11. Barbara Gates has a website: www.barbaragates.com where you'll find a biography, some questions for reflection, some book group suggestions, and a reading list. What do you find most interesting about this website?

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