title:
author/editor:
reviewed by: Don
Don's Books
This winter I have done quite a bit of reading. One of my recent heroes is Ted Kooser, lately named Poet Laureate of the United States. For thirty-five years he worked as an insurance executive, rising at 4:30 A.M. to write poetry before going to work. His poems, Delights and Shadows, reflect his Midwestern surroundings and stir the latent childhood memories of this corn- belt reader.
Kooser's prose Local Wonders, is also poetic as he relates the details of daily life. Read him for the beauty of our language and the beauty of his daily life. Another author I read was Coleman McCarthy. He was a writer for the Washington Post when he was invited to teach a writing class at an inner-city school. He replied, "I'd rather teach peace," a reply that became the title of his book.
The book relates twenty years of McCarthy's teaching non-violence, pacifism and conflict management to over five thousand students in high schools, and colleges. He relates peace applications to family life, street gangs, organizations and nations. I pray that he gets invited to the State Department and the United Nations.
I also recently completed two great books that have helped me along my spiritual journey. Patricia Hampl's memoir, Virgin Time, In Search of the Contemplative Life, is a renegade Catholic's pilgrimage to sacred places in search of a spirituality that she did not find in her birth church. Her writing is beautiful.
Then, I turned the pages of Catherine Ingram's, Passionate Presence, Experiencing the Seven Qualities of Awakened Awareness. The author expands on seven qualities arising from the heart. They are silence, tenderness, embodiment, genuineness, discernment, delight and wonder. Ingram is a compelling force in Western spiritual thought. Her Dharma Dialogues have helped thousands find their "heart intelligence".
Finally, in the poem, "The Road Not Taken" Robert Frost opines, "way leads on to way", or as we non-poets say, one thing leads to another. I was reading Neale Donald Walsch's recent book, Tomorrow's God, where he made reference to Karen Armstrong's writing. Since I was on my way to the library I checked out Karen's, The Spiral Staircase, her spiritual auto-biography and read it non-stop.
Then, "way leads to way" and, as I returned Karen's book, I passed the new book display, and Anne Lamott's new book, Plan B, Further Thoughts on Faith jumped off the shelf and occupied my attention for the next few days.
Perhaps way will now lead me back to finish, Tomorrow's God.
Don adds: "In my seventy-seventh year I finally hired someone to take care of the yard as I no longer have the stamina to keep up with that. This frees up some time for reading. So many books, so little time!"