Week 4 - Response 1

ORIGINAL POST: Leland Kreigh

I loved this book. In fact, I purchased the audio version so that I could hear the authors tell the story. The final chapters continued the theme of the book. The most important theme of this book was to get rid of your ego. By doing so, we are able to overcome our selfishness and calculating selves. When we open ourselves to the world, we are able to see how wonderful it can be.

Every chapter, every story from this book could have been read from the pulpit at my Episcopalian church. They could have also been spoken by a Buddhist monk. The authors are Jewish. The ideas the authors outlined core ideas that almost all world religions strive to promote. It is the human experience versus reptilian tendencies. What is great about this book is that we often feel off balance and upset. We don't always have ideas on how to change things. This book gives a fine illustration.

I love the idea of defining yourself as the board. This opens one up to seeing how we all interact. I know we can play the roles of victim, prosecutor, fixer, etc. By defining ourselves as the board, we open ourselves up to seeing a much bigger picture and how we interact. As curious beings, we love possibility. Unfortunately, our ego and/or our role as a player blinds us from seeing possibility when we inevitably encounter another human being.

MY RESPONSE:

Very insightful comments. I, too, agree that many of the ideas here could have been read from various religious agencies around the globe. While there are some obvious differences, we all seem to share the same ideas of how to live with decency towards each other.

Using this book's ideas as a way to help us find balance in our oft-unbalanced lives is also some great insight. I took a lot from the readings for that purpose alone. The illustrations were by far the most powerful to me and showed real, tangible ways for me to handle difficult situations differently.

I hope to be able to look at situations slightly different now after reading from this book and believe I already am.