Someone once gave me the CDs (about eight hours worth) of Jane Fonda’s autobiography My Life So Far , and a few weeks ago I began to listen to them in the car. I’d never tried any books on tape before.  My friends Carol and Cy who take a lot of road trips do this all the time – and they listen to geographically appropriate authors. Tony Hillerman as they drive through New Mexico, Willa Cather in Nebraska etc.  I never thought I wanted to do this until listening to Jane.

Okay, maybe the drive up into the mountains hearing about her Viet Nam days seemed to go on forever (though anyone still mad at her about Viet Nam should really read/listen to her side of it), but then there’s all the juicy Ted Turner stuff, and also some really good insights about love and marriage. The thing that surprises me the most is that I look forward to getting in the car and hearing what Jane is up to in her life and in her emotional journey, which she’s divided into three acts. She’s become my traveling companion.

Driving to the gym at 6:00 this morning in the dark with Jane, now into the third act of her life, I thought I’m going to use this in class sometime. In personal non-fiction I’m going to come up with an exercise about this.

Think about your life in acts – which act are you in? And would you write your life into three acts or four?  And let us know if you listen to tapes or CD’s of books in your car –what are favorites?