Rain Perry

Week Three. Thank you so much for being here!

I’m really excited to bring you the Person of the Week this week. It’s a story from my own backyard.

I was home doing chores one Saturday and my daughter texted me. “Mom, you have to listen to this. It’s a crime podcast and it’s about that girl who went missing up in San Luis Obispo — and it’s SO GOOD. It’s this guy - he’s from Orcutt and he’s a musician. You have to listen.” And she sent me a link to a podcast called, appropriately, Your Own Backyard.

I’m not really a true crime person, but I was housecleaning and that’s boring so it intrigued me enough to give it a shot. And also: I suddenly remembered my husband’s cousin — whose family owned the garbage company in San Luis Obispo — telling us a long time ago about them searching the landfill for the missing girl.

Well. The first thing I noticed is that the host, Chris Lambert, does not sound like a true crime guy. He sounds like a musician. It’s beautifully recorded and mixed but he isn’t slick, he’s earnest and respectful — funny at times — and clearly cares deeply about the story he’s telling. Plus, unlike most of this kind of stuff, it’s beautiful. He wrote all the music himself and he has a wonderful feel for the arc and beats of a story.

What became apparent right away was that he was as surprised as anyone to be the one telling the story of Kristin Smart. He never planned to do a murder podcast. He’s an indie artist who has released a dozen albums he’s recorded himself. But he found himself going down a rabbit hole on Wikipedia one day and started looking into the case of this girl on a fading billboard he’d seen his whole life. And he learned that she’d never been found, and that no one was doing anything about it anymore and, incredibly, that there was a person of interest from day one who was never charged.

Before long, he found himself making this his mission and the rest, truly, is history. The podcast became famous worldwide and generated enough interest in a long dormant case to lead to arrest and trial, and…well, you should just listen to it. It’s really, really good.

The reason I’ve chosen Chris Lambert for this newsletter is because so often we think someone else is going to be the hero in a situation. But — and this is important at this moment in time — it could be any of us.

Chris Lambert had never done a podcast before, let alone a true crime one. But in retrospect he has a particular set of skills that are perfect for it. He’s a talented storyteller. He’s organized and good at sound editing. He’s dogged — you have to be to keep going for years as an indie artist — and also comfortable with rejection. (Maybe not comfortable. Let’s say “undeterred.”)

But also, and this is key, a singer-songwriter is on a quest — to understand something, to convey something, to confess something — and is willing to put themselves in harm’s way, emotionally speaking. And that turns out to be useful, because in investigating this story, Lambert became, in a very real way, not just a teller of the story but a participant. And that makes Your Own Backyard very compelling. Plus, he did real good in the world, by bringing some peace to a heartbroken family, and protecting future strangers from harm.

We could all be that person, and may be called to be.

In a wonderful short speech at the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, Lambert jokes about how for the Kristin Smart case, there was no one less qualified than he, and he encourages all of us never to assume we can’t help, when we see something wrong in the world. So he’s our person of the week!

Now to the music!

…which has to be Chris Lambert. Here’s a song from his new album Be Great.

Now once again to the habit part of this newsletter

With my designer friend Kayleigh Morrison, I'm currently developing a cute little daily planner for our practice of hope. You can start your own practice on notebook paper before we’re done, though. Here's the rough draft of the instructions, and here is a link to the QR codes that will be in the final version. It’s simple - just a place to track things like “community” and “grief” and “creativity.” The premise is that with repetition, we can make ourselves more joyful, resilient and effective in the times to come.

Check it out. I just got a sneak peek from Kayleigh for the category “connections”:

How is it going this week? Were you able to make a connection with someone you hadn’t seen in person in a long time? I find myself feeling grief for a lot of things right now. What are you grieving? In a crisis, were you able to spot some helpers? Etc.

As to another level of community, I hosted last week our first hourlong zoom for talking about how we fared in terms of joy, creativity, and grief, etc. It was lovely! I’m thinking about how best to use this format — so no zoom on 12/23, but we’ll reconvene after the holidays!

In person gathering

Also after the holidays, I'll schedule something local -- a time and place to get together for community and creativity. I'll keep you posted!

Thank you, so much, for subscribing, and please feel free to pass this on. And if you’re interested in my work as a performer and songwriter, come visit my website!

xo Rain