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November 10, 2006
the road less traveled...
so, i'm reading this book, called the road less traveled by m. scott peck. it was written in 1978 and was recommended to me by one of my undergraduate philosophy professors. a few years ago, i found a copy at a garage sale, picked it up for a quarter, and it had been sitting on my shelf ever since. i'm not really sure why i decided to read it this week, but i have and i've found it quite insightful.
a few things about the author... i'm pretty sure that the guy isn't a christian, although he is VERY spiritually oriented. he's a psychiatrist and most of his writing is based off of his years of clinical experience.
as i've mentioned before on here, i think i'm becoming a critical enough of a consumer to effectively parcel out the good stuff he's saying and to leave the junk by the way side.
a few things about the book...it's divided up into a few sections. 1. discipline 2. love 3. religion and growth 4. grace
i've finished the discipline section (which was really good) and am in the love section. he starts off by discussing what love IS NOT in order to get to what love IS. the first couple chapters discuss the phenomenon of falling in love and the myths associated with romantic love.
i suppose it's important to note that he defines real love as: the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.
there have been a couple of quotes from these chapters that i wanted to share and possibly get your feedback on. the first, i think is true but i can't imagine saying to someone in a counseling setting. the second, i think, really reflects what God is trying to get across to us about love, but that we often times miss. so, here goes...
[on misunderstanding human love as one's personal fulfillment]: Consequently, they are endlessly angry, because they endlessly feel let down by otheres who can never in reality fulfill all their needs or "make" them happy. I have a colleague who often tells people
"Look, allowing yourself to be dependent on another person is the worst possible thing you can do to yourself. You would be better off being dependent on heroin. As long as you have a supply of it, heroin will never let you down; if it's there, it will always make you happy. But if you expect another person to make you happy, you'll be endlessly disappointed."
[on love]: Love is not simply giving; it is judicious giving and judicious withholding as well. It is judicious praising and judicious criticizing. it is judicious arguing, struggling, confronting, urging, pushing and pulling in additon to comforting. It is leadership. The word "judicious" means requiring judgment, and judgment requires more than instinct; it requires thoughtful and often painful decisionmaking.
isn't that at least somewhat true of how God handles us?
anyway, i'll keep reading and thinking...
Posted by Autumn at November 10, 2006 12:26 PM