Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Living with a Wild God
by Barbara Ehrenreich
Why did I get this book? I forget. One of the blogs I follow recommended it. It said something like "an atheist has a religious encounter". I recognized the author, Barbara Ehrenreich, as the author of Nickeled and Dimed--a book I liked--so I put it on my to read list. Months later, I happened to pick up the book at a library sale.
Since I forget the details of the blog post, I started the book in confusion. What was this book about again? Ms. Ehrenreich started telling about her childhood, being raised as an atheist in a somewhat dysfunctional family. She goes into her teen years, when she was deeply into philosophy, wrestling with the questions of existence. (Of course, I, at that age, preferred to focus my energies on viewing all the episodes of Star Trek.) Near the end of high school she has the supernatural encounter. The climax of the book, right? No, life goes on. She goes to college, the same philosophical atheist with a dysfunctional family. What was the point of this book again? There does come a personal turning point and philosophical wrestlings give way to activism. But this is a reaction to the Vietnam War, not her mystical encounter. Activism occupied her thoughts for a while, but eventually, she came back around to wrestle with her mystical encounter. What was it and how does it fit in with her rationalist world view?
Living with a Wild God was an interesting, if somewhat sad, read. A story that was definitely from a different world (-view) than my own, and one that has me wondering how I might end up dealing with an encounter with someone from that world.
Check it out.
LibraryThing link
Why did I get this book? I forget. One of the blogs I follow recommended it. It said something like "an atheist has a religious encounter". I recognized the author, Barbara Ehrenreich, as the author of Nickeled and Dimed--a book I liked--so I put it on my to read list. Months later, I happened to pick up the book at a library sale.
Since I forget the details of the blog post, I started the book in confusion. What was this book about again? Ms. Ehrenreich started telling about her childhood, being raised as an atheist in a somewhat dysfunctional family. She goes into her teen years, when she was deeply into philosophy, wrestling with the questions of existence. (Of course, I, at that age, preferred to focus my energies on viewing all the episodes of Star Trek.) Near the end of high school she has the supernatural encounter. The climax of the book, right? No, life goes on. She goes to college, the same philosophical atheist with a dysfunctional family. What was the point of this book again? There does come a personal turning point and philosophical wrestlings give way to activism. But this is a reaction to the Vietnam War, not her mystical encounter. Activism occupied her thoughts for a while, but eventually, she came back around to wrestle with her mystical encounter. What was it and how does it fit in with her rationalist world view?
Living with a Wild God was an interesting, if somewhat sad, read. A story that was definitely from a different world (-view) than my own, and one that has me wondering how I might end up dealing with an encounter with someone from that world.
Check it out.
LibraryThing link
Labels: BarbaraEhrenreich, CheckItOut
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Nickel and Dimed
by Barbara Ehrenreich
Between this book and the January-February issue of Atlantic Monthly, I'm not feeling too good about myself these days. You see, I have a prejudice against the wealthy and for the working class. It's a dumb prejudice, like most. Anyway, as I was reading these works (and working on my income tax forms) I could not escape the fact that I am nowhere near living in poverty. But enough of my shortcomings. This is a very good book--well written in an amusing and engaging style. In order to test the American belief that hard work will lead to success, and to get a first hand report on how well one can survive on minimum wage, Ms. Ehrenreich left her home and attempted to live as an "unskilled" worker. On three different occasions she went out, got some entry level jobs and tried to make ends meet. If she managed to save enough for the next month's rent, she would consider herself "successful." The results weren't a total surprise. I won't spoil anything by mentioning specifics, but I think most people are aware that minimum wage is not enough to escape poverty. But the book was good in that it put a human face on the statistics and perhaps even reveals some aspects of the reality of the working poor of which us rich folk aren't aware. I know that I will definitely be tipping better in the days to come and hopefully will be reminded to show more respect to those who serve me in the stores and restaurants I frequent. Anyway, I advise you all to check it out.
LibraryThing link
Between this book and the January-February issue of Atlantic Monthly, I'm not feeling too good about myself these days. You see, I have a prejudice against the wealthy and for the working class. It's a dumb prejudice, like most. Anyway, as I was reading these works (and working on my income tax forms) I could not escape the fact that I am nowhere near living in poverty. But enough of my shortcomings. This is a very good book--well written in an amusing and engaging style. In order to test the American belief that hard work will lead to success, and to get a first hand report on how well one can survive on minimum wage, Ms. Ehrenreich left her home and attempted to live as an "unskilled" worker. On three different occasions she went out, got some entry level jobs and tried to make ends meet. If she managed to save enough for the next month's rent, she would consider herself "successful." The results weren't a total surprise. I won't spoil anything by mentioning specifics, but I think most people are aware that minimum wage is not enough to escape poverty. But the book was good in that it put a human face on the statistics and perhaps even reveals some aspects of the reality of the working poor of which us rich folk aren't aware. I know that I will definitely be tipping better in the days to come and hopefully will be reminded to show more respect to those who serve me in the stores and restaurants I frequent. Anyway, I advise you all to check it out.
LibraryThing link
Labels: BarbaraEhrenreich, CheckItOut
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