Reviews of ‘Hello, Stranger’ and ‘Why We Meditate’.
‘Hello, Stranger: How We Find Connection in a Disconnected World’, by Will Buckingham
What’s it about:
Loneliness, not being lonely, why we need people, why people are the worst and how to function in the world alongside them.
What Lynn learned:
Strangers are both ‘nearby and remote’, as observed by sociologist Georg Simmel. Is that not just a curious thought?
That there is not an exact opposite of loneliness – ‘It’s not quite love and it’s not quite community; it’s just this feeling that there are people, an abundance of people, who are in this together’ (quoted Marina Keegan).
I super relate to Marcel Mauss whose ‘interests were so broad, so widely divergent, he found it hard to finish anything.’ (P. 73)
‘sikterusa coffee’ is the best idea ever – serve weaker coffee until your guests know that by the ‘mud water’ one it is time to leave.
Fave quotes:
(This book is filled to the brim with the most wonderful of lines)
‘Loss tears a hole in the world. It exposes us, leaves open a rent, a gap. It is disorientating, puts the compass points of our lives in disarray’ (p. 3)
‘The specifically human desire for somewhere to call home is rooted in our animal vulnerability, in the softness of our bodies, the need we have for nooks into which we can curl ourselves and feel safe.’ (p. 20)
‘It would be so easy to be hard on Kant, what with his endless banging on about duty’ (p. 113)
Why relevant right now:
Live alone. Work alone. Loneliness still haunts my bones.
Interest factor: 4/5
Coffee table cred: 3/5
Ignorance of external world while reading: 3/5
Book cover design: 3.5/5
Help the existential crisis: 5/5
‘Why We Meditate: The Science and Practice of Clarity and Compassion’ by Daniel Goleman and Tsoknyi Rinpoche
What’s it about:
A persuasive argument for being mindful (if you were one of the few deniers left).
‘We all experience negative emotions from time to time. But in a world with as much frenzy and pressure as ours, it’s incredibly easy for these same emotions to become destructive. Now, by blending Eastern tradition with Western science, Why We Meditate effortlessly helps you embrace and understand meditation as never before.
With accessible and eye-opening advice based on groundbreaking neuroscience, this guidebook helps you not only break free from negative patterns of thought and behavior but radically embrace your very being. Revolutionize your health, relationships, and soul with this book that is perfect for both serious meditators and those new to the practice.’ As per Goodmoves.
What Lynn learned:
Not much new knowledge here for me as I’ve read widely on meditation and mindfulness – but still it was a useful summary of science, psychology and sociology.
I really enjoyed the idea of ‘handshaking with your inner monsters’ – meeting them where they are and acknowledging. Kind of like a Harry Potter bogart.
Fave quotes:
‘So if the sense of self is shifty, sneaky, dreamlike, changeable and interdependent, what is the appropriate way to relate to it? With a sense of mereness.’ (p. 170)
‘Joy will come out of playfulness. This accords with nature. Everything is playing – trees, wind, mountains. Everything is interdependently playing, not grasping, not reifying’. (p. 177)
Why relevant right now:
My brain is like Oxford Street on Christmas Eve all the time.
Interest factor: 2.5/5
Coffee table cred: 3/5
Ignorance of external world while reading: 2/5
Book cover design: 2.5/5
Help the existential crisis: 3/5
