Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham (1993)
I just discovered it in 2008, what a marvelous book.
Kurtz and Ketcham individually were already two of my favorite authors. They collaborated on an essential work for anyone interested in spiritual growth, recovery or basically just being more of a human being.
I think it’s interesting that 42 out of 50 reviewers on Amazon gave it 5 stars.
I am devouring this book at such a pace that I am completely resigned to starting it over immediately upon finishing it. It’s been a while since I’ve been this excited about a book in this field.
The authors’ position is really pretty simple: a lot of human problems could be avoided if people understand that perfection is not something that we’re going to achieve here on earth, in fact it’s risky to even regard it as a goal. We are human and therefore imperfect, and have to find a way to reconcile with that. The beauty of the way they approach their thesis is through the use of wisdom stories of all ages and places; from the Bible to American Indian legends to Zen Koans and more.
22 Jan 2009
Well, I’m back in January of 2009 after reading this book from cover to cover again. This time I did pay a little more attention to the notes. As I thought, different parts leaped out at me.
Checking back on Amazon’s reviews, there are now 53 reviews, but still 43 of them give it 5 stars. You can’t please everyone, however, one 1-star reviewer titled it “Oh, what an arrogant windbag”.
The subtitle “Storytelling and the search for meaning” finally registered in my dense brain this time. What do you hear at AA meetings? STORIES! Lots and lots of them. In a way, they’re all the same, but yet they’re all as unique as we are. In any case. I enjoyed the book hugely again and probably every few years I’m going to grab it again.
The stories are set off from the text in bold, so it’s also easy to use the book as a resource to just grab and open at a random place. But it is well-indexed and referenced in case you’re looking for something specific.
linda fetch 