Youtube presentation by Richard Rohr about his book 'Falling Upward: a spirituality of the second half of life' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1kXeklcmMI
Falling Upward, by Richard Rohr Aug 17, 2011 reviewed by Lauren F. Winner in The Christian Century
Franciscan priest Richard Rohr—author of, among other titles, The Naked Now and From Wild Man to Wise Man—has written his most sage, most important book yet. The message of Falling Upward is straightforward and bracing: the spiritual life is not static. You will come to a crisis in your life, and after the crisis, if you are open to it, you will enter a space of spiritual refreshment, peace and compassion that you could not have imagined before.
Rohr's framework leans heavily on Carl Jung. The spiritual life has two stages. In the first half of life, you are devoted to establishing yourself; you focus on making a career and on finding friends and a partner; you are crafting your identity. Spiritually, people in the first half of life are often drawn to order, to religious routine. We are developing habits and letting ourselves be shaped by the norms and practices of our family and community.
Then—a crisis. "Some kind of falling," Rohr says, is necessary for continued spiritual development. "Normally a job, fortune, or reputation has to be lost," writes Rohr, "a death has to be suffered, a house has to be flooded, or a disease has to be endured." The crisis can be devastating. The crisis undoes you. The flood doesn't just flood your house—it washes out your spiritual life. What you thought you knew about living the spiritual life no longer suffices for the life you are living.
Rohr does not offer a syrupy evasion of this crisis. But he does underline two crucial points. First, God has not abandoned you, even if you are sure that God has. ("All the books of the Bible seem to agree," notes Rohr, "that somehow God is with us and we are not alone.") Second, "We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right." That may be cold comfort during the crisis—when your house has flooded, who wants to think about spiritual growth? But later you will notice. You will wonder how you possibly could have come to where you are without that flood.
The notion that a fall must precede growth does not come just from Jung. As Rohr notes, it is written into the very life of Christ, who descended to the dead before he could be resurrected and ascend into heaven. The falling will happen—there is no way to avoid it. But the growth, the second half of life, doesn't necessarily happen. You can stay stuck if you wish. You can refuse the second half.
If you welcome the second half of life, this is what you will find: you learn to hear "a deeper voice of God" than you heard before. "It will sound an awful lot like the voices of risk, of trust, of surrender, of soul, of 'common sense,' of destiny, of love, of an intimate stranger, of your deepest self." You can hear this voice in the second half of life precisely because of all the work you did in the first half; your very self is now a container strong enough to hold the call of the intimate stranger. You find that you can let go of things—pain, judgments, even the need to make judgments. You may find that you are reading a lot of poetry; you may find that you are reading the mystics, who seemed opaque to you before. There is a gravitas in this second half of life, writes Rohr, but it is "held up by a much deeper lightness."
Rohr's framework leans heavily on Carl Jung. The spiritual life has two stages. In the first half of life, you are devoted to establishing yourself; you focus on making a career and on finding friends and a partner; you are crafting your identity. Spiritually, people in the first half of life are often drawn to order, to religious routine. We are developing habits and letting ourselves be shaped by the norms and practices of our family and community.
Then—a crisis. "Some kind of falling," Rohr says, is necessary for continued spiritual development. "Normally a job, fortune, or reputation has to be lost," writes Rohr, "a death has to be suffered, a house has to be flooded, or a disease has to be endured." The crisis can be devastating. The crisis undoes you. The flood doesn't just flood your house—it washes out your spiritual life. What you thought you knew about living the spiritual life no longer suffices for the life you are living.
Rohr does not offer a syrupy evasion of this crisis. But he does underline two crucial points. First, God has not abandoned you, even if you are sure that God has. ("All the books of the Bible seem to agree," notes Rohr, "that somehow God is with us and we are not alone.") Second, "We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right." That may be cold comfort during the crisis—when your house has flooded, who wants to think about spiritual growth? But later you will notice. You will wonder how you possibly could have come to where you are without that flood.
The notion that a fall must precede growth does not come just from Jung. As Rohr notes, it is written into the very life of Christ, who descended to the dead before he could be resurrected and ascend into heaven. The falling will happen—there is no way to avoid it. But the growth, the second half of life, doesn't necessarily happen. You can stay stuck if you wish. You can refuse the second half.
If you welcome the second half of life, this is what you will find: you learn to hear "a deeper voice of God" than you heard before. "It will sound an awful lot like the voices of risk, of trust, of surrender, of soul, of 'common sense,' of destiny, of love, of an intimate stranger, of your deepest self." You can hear this voice in the second half of life precisely because of all the work you did in the first half; your very self is now a container strong enough to hold the call of the intimate stranger. You find that you can let go of things—pain, judgments, even the need to make judgments. You may find that you are reading a lot of poetry; you may find that you are reading the mystics, who seemed opaque to you before. There is a gravitas in this second half of life, writes Rohr, but it is "held up by a much deeper lightness."
The Fate of AFRICA (A History of Fifty Years of Independence)
by Martin Meredith, Publisher: Public Affairs, 2005 752 pages
A well researched reflection on the reality of the African post-colonial experience fifty years on. As Martin notes in this introduction..."This book follows the fortunes of Africa in modern times, opening in the years that sped it towards independence and encompassing the half-century that has since passed. It focuses in particular on the role of a number of African leaders whose character and careers had a decisive impact on the fate of their countries. It examines, too, the reasons why, after the euphoria of the independence era, so many hopes and ambitions failed and why the future of Africa came to be spoken of only in pessimistic terms. Although Africa is a continent of great diversity, African states have much in common, not only their origins as colonial territories, but the similar hazards and difficulties they have faced. Indeed, what is so striking about the fifty-year period since independence is the extent to which African states have suffered so many of the same misfortunes."
This is both a profoundly disturbing and fascinating insight into the reality of the African struggle to shape its own destiny.
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho, Publisher: Harper, 1992 161 pages
This is the story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who decides to travel the world in search of a treasure revealed to him in his dreams. His escapades take him from Spain to Tangiers to the heart of the Egyptian desert and back home. In his journeys he discovers the importance of listening to his heart even in the midst of the most trying circumstances. Only when he pays attention to the signposts laid out for him in the midst of his fears does he find his way forward. Conquering his fears he enters the heart of the world and discovers his dream.
A visionary tale of what we can accomplish if we follow our dreams and don't become cynical and despair of achieving them or in the midst of struggle and pain abandon them.
The River Why
by David James Duncan, Publisher: Sierra Club Books, 2002 (20th Anniversary Edition) 310 pages
For the fly fisherman in all of us! Having recently become a fly fisherman myself I found this a fascinating read. Somewhat in the ilk of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A philosophical encapsulation of reality as seen from the eyes of a fly fisherman who has taken the art to a high degree.
Leaving behind a madcap, fishing obsessed family, Gus decides to strike out on his own, taking refuge in a secluded cabin on a remote riverbank to pursue his own flyfishing passion with unrelenting zeal. But instead of finding fishing bliss, Gus becomes increasingly troubled by the degradation of the natural world around him and by the spiritual barrenness of his own life. His desolation drives him on a reluctant quest for self-discovery and meaning - ultimately fruitful beyond his wildest dreams.
In many ways it is a love story. The love of a man for the wilderness and the woman who comes to share it with him. A good read.
AROUND AFRICA ON MY BICYCLE
by Riaam Manser, Publisher: Jonathan Ball, 2001 (705 pages)
A fascinating story of a young man's journey to escape the rat race find meaning for himself and explore his continent. Finding himself at a dead end in terms of personal satisfaction with his life Riaan sets out to discover himself. His journey takes him some 36,500 kilometres around the circumferance of the continent of Africa on a bicycle. He is determined to ride through every country that touches the coastline - 34 in all. His initial assumptions that this could be achieved in a year were grossly underestimated and after two years, two months, and fifteen days he returns to the Cape Town he calls home and loves. On this journey his hope in humanity is renewed hundreds of times by people who step in to help him through innumerable crises and difficulties. At time his life is at risk, particularly as he cycled through war-ravaged Sierre Leone and was detained by rag tag militias in drug induced stupors. Ironically and miraculously he is saved by the personage of Nelson Mandela - but you'll have to read the book to find out how.
At the end of the journey he has used up 120 tyres, 90 inner tubes, and 15 bicycle chains and is on his third set of toe nails. He averaged 90 km per day and carried an approx average weight of 45Kg of supplies plus at least 5kg of water.
If you want a delightful and absorbing read that will almost get you up out of your armchair and onto the tarmac - this is the one.
FOR WHITES ONLY
by Charles Cilliers, Publisher: ABC Press, 2008 (256 pages)
In a sarcastic, poetic, often shockingly direct, and sometimes funny style Charles Cillier has written a controversial book about the white racism that whites don't want to see, but he thinks they could do well to read. Throughout the book he unpacks a lot of the myths that white South Africans hold about the rest of the nation's people and their desire to move on to the new era without actually acknowledging and dealing with the reality of racism in their past and present. He acknowledges that although the country has edged away from the abyss and flames that could have been the reality in 1994 there are too many people who still carry their lighters with them.
Cilliers promulgates the idea that if all parties in the new rainbow nation acknowledge the burden, pain and responsibility they carry (and he points his finders directly at the white community), are willing to address the issues, and find their identity in one another as part of a new nation, reconciliation is not only possible but also a reality.
THREE ~ LETTER PLAGUE
by Jonny Steinberg, Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2008 (342 pages)
At the age of 29, Sizwe Magadla is among the most handsome, well-educated, and richest of the men in his poverty-stricken village in rural Transkei. Dr Hermann Reuter ... wants to prove to the world that if you provide decent treatment, people will come and get it, no matter their circumstances.
Already, Sizwe has watched several neighbours grow ill and die, yet he remains reluctant to establish his own HIV status. When Hermann establishes an antiretroviral treatment in Sizwe's village, these figures from different worlds collide - one afraid that people will turn their backs on medical care, the other fearful of the advent of a world in which respect for traditional ways has been lost and privacy has been obliterated. The resulting antagonism mirrors a continent-wide battle against an epidemic that has corrupted souls as much as bodies.
In this eye opening, compassionate, searing and beautifully written account the author seeks to understand the AIDS crisis in South Africa. This is a true story. (summary taken from the book)
