Patti Smith is so incredibly COOL. That is all. For now.
The Call Of Sedona
Every year millions of visitors journey to Sedona, Arizona, to find themselves captivated by incomparable landscapes, and majestic sunsets. Sedona really is one of the most breathtakingly beautiful, magical places I have ever been. Both times I have passed through Sedona I was on a road trip, en route to The City of Angels, and both times my brief stops in Sedona were the highlight of my journey. The subtle and steady current of peace has been calling me back ever since.
I recently read the New York Times best-selling book, The Call of Sedona- Journey of the Heart by Ilchi Lee and found this trademark peacefulness within its pages. The book includes many striking colour-images to feast upon as Ilchi Lee recounts how he personally discovered Sedona. He also goes into great detail describing each of the most stunning and notable areas of Sedona. 
ILCHI LEE is an educator, mentor, and trailblazer who has developed many mind-body training methods including Dahn Yoga and Brain Education. He is also the founder of Sedona Mago Retreat and the author of thirty-three books, including the New York Times bestseller, The Call of Sedona: Journey of the Heart. For more information about Ilchi Lee and his works, visit www.callofsedona.com.
The Industry of Happiness
No – you can’t have it all. That’s just not how life works. I hate to be the one delivering this reality check, but unless you’ve managed to reduce your idea of all to a very few key elements, you will experience disappointments, like everyone else. This is one reason we invented priorities. We have to find a way to reconcile our dreams and our limitations. By limitations, I’m referring specifically to the things we do not control, which is everything other than our own actions and reactions. I understand the value of positive thinking, but I’m really getting sick of the legion of people trying to SELL happiness. As soon as you realize that true and lasting happiness, as a state of mind, cannot be bought, it’s only logical to see the fraud in those trying to sell it.
The number of people searching, ready to throw their hard-earned money at anything that may bring them some fleeting happiness, has created a massive industry that includes an endless stream of books, DVDs, speaking engagements and provides employment for tens of thousands of life coaches and motivational speakers. Let us not forget about the growing army of professional psychologists who train them, but would also be just as happy taking your dollars. People desperately grasp at happiness and scramble to discover the deep-seated reason for their inescapable frustrations. It’s no secret that any business that is profitable, tends to flourish. Even though this massive and lucrative industry of positive thinking has been created, and touted as a panacea for all that ails us, North Americans account for two-thirds of the global market for antidepressants, which also happen to be the most commonly prescribed drugs.
Products like The Secret are misleading, confusing, and counter-productive. It’s dangerous to sell this kind of positivity. It gives the illusion that we have more power than we do. When something doesn’t work out as we had hoped, envisioned or expected, we are led to believe we must not have wanted it enough, or we didn’t try hard enough, or we didn’t truly believe the inevitability of our success. Or -sometimes shit happens. But swarms of people will then engage in the countering school of thought by saying things like, “as it should be.” I don’t subscribe to the pop-culture religion of Everything Happens for a Reason. I believe things happen and we are obliged to assign a meaning to these events or circumstances. We hold the need to justify so we can feel better.
Our consumer culture encourages us and relies on us to want more – BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER, SMALLER, MORE, MORE, MORE– and the purveyors of positive thinking are ready to tell us we deserve more and MORE and can have it all if we really want it and are willing to make the necessary effort to get it. (I wonder if our lack of true happiness is in any way related to our sense of entitlement.) We have been tricked into thinking we deserve to be happy. Consumerism has convinced us to keep spending, that our happiness is only one new product away. Unfortunately, this kind of happiness can only be fleeting because it’s based on planned obsolescence. This has lead to recent generations plagued by dizzying amounts of personal debt. But that’s okay too because the people selling positive thinking have assured us that everything will work out, as long as we are optimistic: Don’t worry, be happy, and spend your money now!
Wouldn’t it serve us better to brace ourselves for struggles against obstacles, both of our own making and those imposed by outside stimuli, instead of chanting mantras that leave us blindsided when chaos strikes? Maybe there is a middle ground, somewhere between blind faith and educated, logical probability. I feel confident admitting that it’s unlikely all my dreams will come true, for a number of reasons. It’s just not realistic, and saying it’s not realistic doesn’t make me a pessimist. Anything can happen, but certainly shouldn’t be expected or assumed. Not everyone has the luxury or ability of making their dreams come true… that’s why it’s so exciting when someone we know pulls it off.
To be continued…
FUTHER READING:
Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America- by Barbara Ehrenreich – exposes big business and the false promises of positive thinking.
Never Saw It Coming: Cultural Challenges to Envisioning the Worst- by Karen Cerulo – recounts a number of ways that the habit of positive thinking, or what she calls optimist bias, undermined preparedness and invited disaster.
The Sense of an Ending
Science has revealed we are not reliable witnesses, especially to our own lives. They now believe that a memory morphs every time we try to retrieve it. Memory is imperfect, mutable, and associative. We believe what we need to believe to justify our actions and reactions. We create fictions so we can avoid our truth. Many of us make choices in a brief moment and we end up paying for those decisions in what remains of our time. One decision can ripple through the rest of our lives regardless if we happen to remember the inciting circumstance.
I recently read The Sense of an Ending, written by Julian Barnes, winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize. It is a compelling character study of the pragmatic narrator, Tony. Barnes challenges us to examine our lives, our memory and opinions, our conduct and the parts of our lives that we choose to forget. “Time doesn’t act as a fixative, rather as a solvent,” is one of Tonys thought-hatching, philosophical observations.
Tony seems genuinely surprised when forced to re-examine some of the circumstances and friendships he has long since dismissed. He is now middle-aged, living a fairly solitary life after a not unpleasant, but mediocre marriage, eroded by time, complacency, and stagnation. He confronts his old ideas, trying to piece together who he became. The author invites us to heed the warnings of those already in the late afternoon of their lives. “I thought of the things that had happened to me over the years, and how little I had made happen,” Tony muses.
This is the first book I’ve read by Julian Barnes. Barnes is exact with his words, nothing superfluous, which I appreciate. I liked his quote from the fictional historian Patrick LaGrange, “History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation.”
I share an obsession with the passing of time in a subjective sense and intimations of our mortality. The extent of which time affects our memories has always fascinated me. I have memories from childhood, as young as two, three years old. They are very convincing to me, but these memories would probably be better defined as stories. All these years later, they lack documentation, some of them even lack corroboration. Barnes has successfully woven a tale that reminds us there is what we remember and there is the truth.
Need a Read? My Year in Books: A Review
There is a reason you’ll probably never see a book rated one star on my list… I look up almost every book I read on goodreads before I decide whether it will get more of my attention. If something doesn’t have at least three stars on goodreads, I won’t waste my time. Keep in mind, just like goodreads, my stars don’t come in half sizes.
It was ok.
I liked it.
I REALLY liked it.
Hauntingly well done.
1. Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
If you enjoy memoirs, Augusten Burroughs is an always entertaining contemporary pillar of this genre. Running With Scissors is his fascinating account of the complex family dynamic that coloured his childhood.
2. Room by Emma Donoghue
I didn’t love this book as much as most people who read it, but it wasnt completely without merit.
3. House Rules by Rachel Sontag
Though I cannot agree with the claim “House Rules will stand beside Running With Scissors and The Glass Castle as a memoir that cracks open the shell of a desperately dysfunctional family with impressive grace and humour,” I still gave it three stars. I felt, at times, that the author was a whining, spoiled brat with a grudge. Celebrated authors Augusten Burroughs and Jeanette Walls were both able to portray their stories with grace and humour. Sontag reeks of immaturity, bitterness and blame.
4. Butterbox Babies by Bette L. Cahill
I love just about anything historical, but that Butterbox Babies exposes some very disturbing and unflattering Canadiana, made it even more intriguing.
5. Write Your Memoir: The Soul Work of Telling Your Story by Dr. Allan G. Hunter
6. Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall
Well written, clean and polished. The vivid, honest characters are a testament to Zoe Whittall’s genuine talent. She made writing a first novel look easy.
7. Chastened: The Unexpected Story of My Year Without Sex by Hephzibah Anderson
The premise was promising, but with the exception of maybe one or two thought provoking sentences, this book was lacking in almost every way.
8. Inter Alia by David Seymour
A first collection of poetry by one of Canada’s talented young poets.
9. Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens
10. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass
If you’re planning on writing a novel any time soon, this is a must-read.
11. How to Find the Work You Love by Laurence G. Boldt
12. The Game of Life and How to Play It by Florence Scovel Shinn
This was an indulgence of my curiosity. Considered a pioneer in the genre of “self-help” books, it was written in 1925.
13. Many Lives, Many Masters by Brian Weiss
Intersting food for thought.
14. Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children by William Zinsser
15. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
This was definitely one of my favourite books of the year. I don’t underestimate the amount of research and effort required to rebuild real-life characters and create believable dialogue. The Paris Wife is a captivating work of historical fiction told in the voice of Hadley, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, as she recounts their years together.
16. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
After reading The Paris Wife, I was inspired to re-read this memoir by Hemingway. I may have enjoyed it even more second time around.
17. Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh McLeod
This was a quick, inspiring read for any creative types looking to maintain momentum. Check out Hugh’s website for more fun: http://www.gapingvoid.com/
18. The Memory Palace by Mira Bartok
This was a good read, though I did struggle with my judgments. I was slightly perplexed that the author and her sister could abandon their mother. Maybe I was just jealous because I feel more bound to my family ties. Her freedom and disconnection from her family did sound lonely though.
19. Live Through This: A Mothers Memoir of Runaway Daughters and Reclaimed Love by Debra Gwartney
20. Crush It!: Why Now Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
Im not sure how many nonfiction books (or any for that matter) this author has read, but I felt his hot air and arrogance overshadowed his efforts. There were a few useful tidbits, but he certainly did not reinvent the wheel.
21. Bossypants by Tina Fey
Love. Tina. Fey. I had a healthy curiosity about her, and this book satisfied. There were some pleasant surprises and I respect her even more. She comes across as sharp-witted and disarmingly honest. I also enjoyed reading about how the scar on her face has shaped her life and personality.
22. Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Aspergers by John Elder Robinson
Another first time author, although Robinson shares pedigree and talent with his brother, Augusten Burroughs. This was a compelling, entertaining and educational read.
23. Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person by Hugh Prather
I highly doubt this book would ever meet a publisher these days, but I got the impression it was sort of a marker of the times when it was published back in 1970.
24. A Spy in the House of Love by Anais Nin
This book may not be considered overly risque on todays standards, but when you take into consideration it was published in 1954, it reads a little more daring; a classy and dirty classic read.
25. Blue Nights by Joan Didion
I like Joan Didion, even though sometimes she sounds very pretentious. I think (hope) the pretentiousness is unintentional. With only the occassional cringe and eyeroll on my part, ultimately, I was fond of this book.
26. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Full of cliches, albeit refurbished in an intelligent and charming way, I very much enjoyed the first two thirds of this book. Unfortunately, it slightly missed the mark. However, I do commend this first time novelist for the vibrant imagery and clever prose.
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