A CRACK IN THE WALL

2010-06-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

The Secrets of Happiness: a short book review

Note: I wouldn't be putting this here if I didn't think it was really, really good.

The Secrets of Happiness by Richard Schoch contains four parts and eights essays, each of which can be read on its own. The parts are: pleasure, desire, reasoning suffering. The essays are based on individual philosophies or religions, e.g. the Stoics, Christianity, etc. In fact, I read the essays in the order the interested me—I almost read the book backward. I was surprised how much I got from the one on Hinduism. And my favorite was the last, on Job.

Each chapter looks at a different tradition, examining how life might be lived, should be lived, could be lived if one wishes “happiness.” I put happiness in quotes because I think in our culture happiness is often seen as something rather shallow, mindless, maybe selfish. In this book happiness is the way each of us cultivates the best in ourselves and our circumstances to create meaning, joy, peace. This is what the book asks the reader to think about: what does happiness mean to me and how do I create my happiness?

I was interested in his answer to the meaning of pain and suffering, something one gets more of with age! And I thought his last chapter on Job was profound. In fact, I’ll end with a quote from that chapter.

“The wheel turns one last time, only Job does not know it. God remembers his faithful servant’s moral courage and praises him for having “spoken the truth.” And that is why God sides with Job” because he alone found the strength to contend with God, to wrestle with life’s perplexities and penetrate its secrets. Job does not know that the wheel has turned but we do. We know the last triumphant truth of his bitter agony: that it is right to demand more and better from the world, right to seek the meaning in life as it comes to us, and right to expect happiness in the midst of unspeakable suffering.
“In the story of Job we find an almost cosmic definition of happiness, one more abstract than we have seen and one far removed from any simplistic notion that happiness has anything to do with pleasure or good fortune. Through this parable of suffering (Job) we see happiness in an unaccustomed but penetratingly clear light—as bound up in our search for the meaning of life when life seems most meaningless. In some sense happiness is the search for meaning against all odds. Which is why suffering is no barrier to happiness but a means—so improbable, so unwelcome—for discovering just what happiness is. P.195

Reading this book made me think a lot, made me ask myself questions, made me see I have more choices than I sometimes realize. So I recommend it. It might be that if others of you like it too, one of two of the essays, certainly the one on Job, might be worth using for discussion, in some way.

Not as obvious as you think: One Small Step

2008-07-01T21:36:00.000-07:00

This book is titled One Small Step Can Change Your Life, and it's better than you might think. In fact, I read it over six months ago, maybe longer, but I find myself using its key ideas more than I would have thought. And I would bet that any time I were to dip into it, the ideas and examples would prove useful.
The key idea is that a secret to achieving goals or making changes in your life is to break them down into the smallest possible steps--the very smallest. The author, Robert Maurer, teaches at U.C. L.A. Medical School. Many of his examples are related to health, but he applies his theory to solving all kinds of problems.
It would be easy to respond to this book with yes, of course; you think we are idiots. Isn't it common sense to break a process into steps, even to see problem solving and change as a process? But if you think of the number of things you'd like to do or the changes you'd like to make and don't, you might be more impressed. And when you read his analysis of why small steps are so appealing, even seductive, thus effective, you may want to try out his theory. His stories are inspirational and convincing.
I recommend this book highly.
Now the smallest step you can take is write down the title and author.

IN PRAISE OF SELF DEPRECATION by Wislawa Szymborska

2008-06-12T23:31:00.000-07:00

The buzzard has nothing to fault himself with.
Scruples are alien to the black panther.
Piranhas do not doubt the rightness of their actions.
The rattlesnake approves of himself without reservation.

The self critical jackal does not exist.
The locust, alligator, trichina, horsefly
live as they live and are glad of it.

The killer whale's heart weights one hundred kilos
but in other respects it is light.

There is nothing more animal-like
than a clear conscience
on the third planet of the sun.

The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer

2008-06-11T01:40:00.000-07:00

I think always that the book on spirituality/psychology that I am presently reading is the very best book ever, and this is no exception. It may be that I read into each book, of find in it. what I next need. I don't know. But this book seems so insightful to me. He is not writing from any specific theological perspective, though maybe he seems Buddhist. But he is clearly in the company of people like Eckhart Tolle etc. What makes this book so interesting to me is his understanding or explanation of why and how we resist living in the present, letting go of fear and control, moving into that place of peace and connection spiritual people want. He is so good at explaining the very specific ways--the reasons we give ourselves--by which we resist and close and fight life.

He says things like, "It doesn't matter what others do unless you decide it matters to you." Or, "You end up loving your edges because they point your way to freedom. All you have to do is relax and lean into them." Or, "Most people try to fix their problems by getting better at the same external games they have always played." And he has enough examples and details to make this make sense. Maybe his best insight for me is his description of the way we take our fear or pain, like a thorn lodged in us that we are afraid to take out which we then protect and which dictates how we live, so as not to let it get touched. I haven't said that well. He does and it's a fabulous metaphor for the protective,, controlling, fearful way we so often live.

Anyway this the latest best spiritual book I've read. I recommend it heartily. I have found it immensely useful.

film: The visitor

2008-06-10T00:48:00.000-07:00

The Visitor is a film by the writer/director who made The Stationmaster. If you didn't see that one, rent it. It's funny, off beat, and touching, which is what a lot of good small films achieve, I guess. Anyway, I loved it. This isn't that good but it is good and it is interesting in a way message films are. The message seems true and important. The film is about the experience of being illegal in the US and so being hopeful and scared and often mistreated. The story is good because the characters are real, vulnerable, understated, well acted. The filming is sophisticated. I think that the presence of a message is what undercuts the film as "art" while it's the message--the plight of people who find themselves in this sad, difficult condition is what makes the film worth seeing. And I would see it!

Books by Alexandra Fuller

2008-05-20T09:16:00.000-07:00

I am presently reading Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier by Alexandra Fuller. Her first, previous book was Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight. It was a huge success with good reason, a small memoir of a wild, funny childhood in Africa. The voice, the writing, the humor, the whole story are terrific. It works on every level. Read it.
This second book didn't get the best reviews. The first chapter is confusing, lacks focus, maybe she is trying too hard. It must be tough to write a second book after such a successful first book. But then the books gets much getter, gets good, And again there is that wonderful voice and that really interesting, weird country.
I tend to think that Africa is just so crazy and complicated and irrational that it's not worth trying to understand anything or even get the map with its changing names clear. But this book does help.
What interests me as a writer is her voice, the imagination and enery that comes from her own emotional intensity and her intellect and imagination, which is, of course, her relation to her material, herself, and the reader. Sometimes, I think, she tries too hard, but.... (I really should have titled this whole blog elipses. Some English teacher would say the use of this demonstrates a lack of thought and discipline but I prefer to think I am inviting my reader to finish the thought....)
But--here is what matters--I keep reading, wanting to read, carrying the book around, which is why I am writing about it. But read the first one first and tell me what you think. JH

What I'm doing here...and the blog title...and.....

2008-05-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

A DISCLAIMER
I am the last, the very last person, to do this. I love Emily Dickinson's lines from the little poem "I'm Nobody," ..."how public like a frog to tell your name the live long day to an admiring bog." On the other hand, the opposite of that is, I suppose, talking quietly to oneself beside a pretty stream, living alone in a small attic, and writing a few fabulous lines of poetry on small pieces of paper to be discovered once one is dead. And that's not appealing either. So.....

WHAT
What I want to do with this is pass on recommendations for books, films, etc. especially those related to spirituality (a terrible word) and psychology. I could have called this: spirituality, creativity, ideas, art, and my opinion. The Crack in the Wall title refers to my favorite metaphor for finding one's way--my way-- through the assumptions, conventionality, "in the box" state that close me in and down and.....Depending on my level of boredom, depression, pain, fear, and mainly mild dissatisfaction or frustration, I am always looking for "a crack in the wall."

SHAKESPEARE'S WIFE by Germaine Greer
This book got as good a review as I think I've ever read in the NY Times Book Review. But it is dense and complex. Since almost nothing is known about S's wife, critics, all men, have done what they wanted with her, which is mainly to say portrayed her as illiterate, uninteresting, and unloved. S spent most of his life in London. She was older and pregnant when they married. He left her only his second best bed. But Greer uses amazingly detailed research re: life in that place and time, e.g. how many couples were pregnant when they married, the difference between the vows and the the ceremony in time, the roles of women, to make a case that the male critics have been or very well may have been totally wrong. She writes wonderfully. The material is complex and interesting. And what I am coming away with is the insight that things are never what they seem, history is always crazier than we imagine, and we probably can't know exactly what happened and why... I adore Shakespeare. His language which is also his wisdom is another reason for believing in miracles, in "the divine." I am enjoying this book!