Posted by By Lorrie Irby Jackson – Special to Dallas South News
Comedian, actress and talk show host Sherri Shepherd knows all about playing the fool. Before the TV roles (Friends, 30 Rock, and the new self-titled sitcom Sherri), movies (Beauty Shop, Madagascar: Escape to Africa and Precious) and her cushy position as talk show host on The View, the Chicago native spent plenty of time fumbling through life, wasting time in unfulfilling jobs, warped relationships and well, doing a lot of dumb things in general.
Sherri Shepherd talks about why she wrote Permission Slips
It’s the impetus fueling her homespun and hilarious memoir, Permission Slips—Every Woman’s Guide to Giving Herself a Break, and in telling on herself, Ms. Shepherd makes herself all the more real and relatable as she dispenses hard-earned advice on love and living.
Sherri Shepherd
The premise is surprisingly simple: we ladies take our failings way too seriously and need to allow ourselves to fall short minus all the guilt and the drama. So, throughout the book, Ms. Shepherd’s life lessons are punctuated with squared-off ‘permission slips’ to do just that, whether its about marriage, motherhood, friendships, your spiritual growth or getting along with family and friends. Feeling bad because you couldn’t get that marriage to work? “If you’re divorced, write yourself a permission slip to learn lessons from your ‘starter’ marriage and apply them to your next one.”
Have you missed so many Sundays’ at the Lord’s house that you’re embarrassed to even drive past the church? “…Write yourself a permission slip to come back to God at any time. In fact, if you kneel while you scribble, you’re halfway there.” Freaking out about not passing for 25 anymore? “Write yourself a permission slip to make the age you are right now the new forty.”
But in-between the anecdotes, Ms. Shepherd serves up a fair share of heartbreak and pain, detailing what broke up her marriage:
I married a man who told me he couldn’t be monogamous…And what did I do? Thank him for dinner and leave the restaurant? No. I decided to make him monogamous
her struggle to become the last in her family to be plagued with diabetes:
So basically, if I live long enough, I will lose some of my limbs. In fact, the only way I can dodge an amputation is to get hit by a bus on the way to the surgery. And with my luck, the bus would probably run over my good foot
how Eddie Griffin assisted her career:
I approached Eddie after the show. ‘I want to try this, Can you give me any advice?’ …he encouraged me to give it a shot. ‘But what if I’m scared?’ I asked him. ‘If you’re scared, do it scared’
the life-and-death drama that faced her now 4-year-old son:
From the moment he was born, it was clear he could die at any time. There was a hole in his heart, and in his intestine. His lungs were underdeveloped. Heck, everything was underdeveloped because he was supposed to cook in my oven for four more months.
and finally, why a good-and-grown woman actually told an audience of millions that she didn’t know whether or not the earth was flat: that explanation (which is pretty plausible, considering her upbringing) starts on page 159 and ends with yes, another permission slip:
So write yourself a permission slip to say the dumbest thing in the world. ‘Cause, thanks to me, no matter what you say, it will be the second dumbest thing in the world.
Insightful and inspiring, Permission Slips is a PG-13-rated girlfriend hug in book form, would make a great stocking stuffer for the holidays and reminds the reader that the immortal Smokey Robinson “Tears of a Clown” truism plays out all too often in show biz: “Now if there’s a smile on my face, it’s only there trying to fool the public.”
Lorrie Irby Jackson is a freelance journalist who’s based in Dallas and has covered entertainment professionally for several years, writing many for The Dallas Morning News. Her e-mail address is lorrie.irby@gmail.com.
/