 |
|
|
| October, 2007 | ||
| Return to Index |
|
|
The Second Half of Life: Opening the Eight Gates of Wisdom I FOUND myself captivated by the sincerity and clarity of this wonderfully profound, well-written book by author and cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien. Using what she refers to as the “crucibles of meanings:” symbols, images and metaphors, Arrien describes the eight different stages of the second half of life. She suggests that there are “eight gates,” and that each gate is a depiction of what life holds at different intervals during the second half of living. Arrien states, “We all come in through the Silver Gate and we all go out through the Gold Gate.” The gates help us to deal with issues such as facing new experiences, and changing identities and intimacy. They help us to face the challenges that we encounter in life and to acknowledge our strengths. I feel this book is not only for those in the second half of life. It is a book of revelation and can serve as a guide to those who have not reached the half-way point; it is a good tool for looking to the future with optimism. It can give us a renewed sense of who we are and what we want in our lives. There is a practice test at the end of each chapter that gives the reader the opportunity to reflect on where he is in getting what he wants out of life. Throughout the book, inspirational quotes serve to deepen the message of the text. A favorite of mine is by Shinsho: “Does one really have to fret about enlightenment? No matter what road I travel, I’m going home.” The beautiful black and white photos of hands at the beginning of each chapter and feet at the end of each chapter, are poignant illustrations in this well-designed, attractive book (which is a 2007 Nautilus Book Award winner). I so identified with the message of the The Second Half of Life, and Arrien’s views that I did not want this book to end. |
||
| —Mary Porter | ||
The Year of Magical Thinking I KNOW why we try to keep the dead alive: we try to keep them alive in order to keep them with us. I also know that if we are to live ourselves, there comes a point that we must relinquish the dead, let them go, keep them dead.” Joan Didion writes this as she realizes the day she is remembering, exactly a year ago, was the first without her husband of forty years, and that now each day that passes will be one more removed from the distinct memory of him, increasingly more a memory of memory than of reality. Published in 2005 to instant acclaim and a National Book Award, The Year of Magical Thinking, and subsequent play with actress Vanessa Redgrave as Didion, is about grief and mourning and coming to terms with love, loss and the mysteries of life. In December 2003, while their adult daughter lay gravely ill across the country, Didion’s life-partner, the author John Gregory Dunne, suddenly collapsed at the dinner table. She describes what followed: “alternating currents of utter despair and tremendous courage, uncontrollable rememberings of events and conversations unremarkable at the time but that now seemed to hold deep meaning, and the magical thinking, alluding to such practices as her safeguarding her husband’s shoes, in the irrational yet strangely unshakeable hope that by the keeping of his shoes he might himself be reanimated.” Any faith worth having must be resilient enough, and any god worth believing in great enough, to just hold us near while we “rage against the dying of the light.” As a beautifully crafted and incredibly powerful memoir, this book joins C. S. Lewis’s A Grief Observed and Madeleine L’Engle’s The Summer of the Great-Grandmother in illuminating the human condition from the inside out. |
||
| —Jesse Jennings |
Visit Media Review archivesTo
read further, pick up your copy of Science of Mind Magazine United
Church of Religious Science Web Design
and Graphics Copyright © 2003
Marty Bunch Art Originals
|
