I don’t have much time to read—Reader’s Digest and the highly accurate and sophisticated People magazine are about my speed. Short bytes in short time frames. It was in People magazine that I read a book review about Crisis, Pursued by Disaster, Followed Closely by Catastrophe: A Memoir of Life on the Run. The write-up sounded interesting, so I went online to my local library and queued up to get the book. Apparently others thought it sounded interesting as well, because it took over a month for it to become available.


It is the personal story of Mike O’Connor, a highly acclaimed investigative reporter and war correspondent. During his entire childhood, his parents were running from some secret that was never divulged to him or his two sisters. They would suddenly abandon their home, pets, schools, friends and whatever else and flee to Mexico.


After his parents died (of natural causes) Mike was finally convinced by his sisters and his own curiosity to research his family and learn the secrets of his past. The book begins with his childhood experiences and continues through the present day.


So what does this have to do with this blog? The main undercurrent of this book—from the telling of Mike’s childhood up to his reasons for writing the book—is how he grew up not trusting his parents because of the lies they told and the reality they manufactured. As he unwound his past, he found other secrets kept by other family members he didn’t even know he had. It seemed everywhere he turned, he saw the pain and devastation caused by people not being honest and trustworthy. It was not that he expected his family to be perfect or without blemish … it was simply that he felt betrayed, adrift and alone because he couldn’t trust the adults who were responsible for his care.


Does this sound familiar? In Mike’s case, his parents loved him. In fact, they loved him very much. But eventually even that wasn’t enough to hold the family together. Love without trust is shaky indeed. Although he was able to forgive his parents when he has a better understanding of their story, that didn’t erase the scars, feelings and conditioned responses he had developed over his lifetime.


I was only able to read a few reviews on this book and they were somewhat mixed, but I found it to be a good read. It certainly held my attention and reinforced my beliefs about how important it is for parents to do what they say and say what they mean. We can’t alter our children’s reality—so we must be honest and help them to face it head on.