Falling Upward

This book rocked my world. Or more precisely, my world has been rocked and this book made some sense of it all. I buy books on Kindle these days for economy and ease of use but a couple times a year I read a book that is so important I must have it on my shelf. I ordered the hard copy of this one before I was done with the Kindle version.

So what's it about and what makes it so great? The author explores what he calls the "second half of life" not second-half in terms of years but second-half in terms of maturity and (to use a term that makes me uncomfortable) enlightenment.

To sum it all up (an impossible task), the first half of life is all about labels and categories (Conservative, Liberal, Hippie, Punk, Slut, Prude, Jock, Nerd, Rich, Poor etc). The first half of life is all about image, posing and posturing. For those who reach the second half (and not all do), the labels fall away. There is no more labels because there is no more ego. There is only compassion, love and truth.

So how do we get to this second half of life? Unfortunately, it is usually through incredible suffering. We build this false persona all our lives and it takes a tremendous blow to knock it down.

The author is far more liberal than I and I will say that on my first read, I would guess 3% of what he said is questionable to me. The other 97% accurately describe my rocked world.

This book is not for everyone but if you have suffered to the point where you feel that your whole world was torn apart leaving you to ask, "I am not who I was. Who am I now?" And you are feeling like all the old labels you have relied upon are no longer helpful, this may be for you.

Disclaimer: It is a Christian book written by a catholic priest however he readily acknowledges that other faiths just flat-out do some things better and so I think the book works for non-Christians as well.

I can count on one hand the number of books in my life I have read, and then picked up and turned to page one to read again. This is one of them.

Now if you will excuse me, I have some reading to do . . .