Me Thinks

I have heard several people talk about this book and I finally read it.  There were many important points in the book and much to think about.  The storyline slowed the book down a bit for me, but the truths taught were key. I really like the key point--that individuals are either facing life with a heart at war or a heart at peace. This point has made a difference for me as I have contemplated how I face certain life situations. I will share a few excerpts from the book:

We should spend much more time and effort helping things go right than dealing with things that are going wrong.  Unfortunately, however, these allocations of time and effort are typically reversed.  We spend most of our time with others dealing with things that are going wrong.  We try fixing our children, changing our spouses, correcting our employees, and disciplining those who aren't acting as we'd like.  And when we're not actually doing these things, we're thinking about doing them or worrying about doing them (pg. 16).

In the way we regard our children, our spouses, neighbors, colleagues, and strangers, we choose to see others either as people like ourselves or as objects.  They either count like we do or they don't (pg. 31).

When you begin to see others as people, issues related to race, ethnicity, religion, and so on begin to look and feel different.  You end up seeing people who have hopes, dreams, fears, and even justifications that resemble your own (pg. 189).