Contemplify NonRequired Reading List Email for January 31, 2018
The January NonRequired Reading List
Fellow Contemplatives,
Gratitude is on my mind today despite my current conditions of moving deeper and deeper under the covers. I am sick and in bed today. The type of illness that has me wavering in and out of reality, hungry and not hungry, tired but unable to sleep. Nothing serious, but serious enough to knock me on my back for a bit. And yet I am grateful. I am grateful for the water that glides over my sandpaper throat, a morning nap, my daughter’s gift of rock that she suggests will heal me, my wife’s kind offerings of tea and miso soup, that I finished this reading list a week ago, a pause from the bustle to attend to my body which has taken me thus far. Gratitude abounds. I hope this finds you with a person or moment that you are grateful for too...
Here is this month’s NonRequired Reading List:
Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy by Michael Perry (Get it at the Public Library or Indiebound)
I laughed out loud reading this book in a crowded public space. That is pert near unheard of for me. Long-time subscribers to the NonRequired Reading list may remember my first dive into Montaigne last April in which I recommended the gold standard of Montaigne related writings, How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell. I hold to that recommendation, but for those who want to ease into Montaigne, pour yourself a pint and by all means pair it with Michael Perry’s Montaigne in Barn Boots. There are two standout reasons to do so, 1) It’s the funniest book I’ve read in ages 2) Perry translates the meat of Montaigne’s writing with his own vulnerable sharing and application. My measure for friends worth keeping is the same for authors: can they belay between foolish laughter to gut-punch vulnerability in the flash of a minute? Perry is cut from that cloth*. On the subject of marriage, Perry drapes Montaigne’s style of commitment of partner over his own. The differences are immediate, the pedestal Perry builds for his wife is high enough off the ground to be admirable and low enough to be relatable. And just when you think you can put their marriage in a box, Perry relays the mystery and beauty of his marriage that can only be spoken or experienced by those inside the marriage. Montaigne on the other hand seems to have no problem being the lone curator of his marriage and its capacity for meaning.
The strength of this book for me was the throughline of Perry’s unpacking of Montaigne’s life and essays and his gut-busting comparisons between himself and Montaigne. From kidney stones to friendship, sex to Twitter, flatulence to friendship, Prince to Chance the Rapper...this book is disarmingly thoughtful and funny. This book is for readers who also like to bob and weave between laughter, tears and sighs of recognition.
*In book form at least, Perry states that in person and off-stage he is a more introverted creature
Walk With Me: A Journey Into Mindfulness (Watch Trailer at walkwithmefilm.com)
This film provides a visual backdrop to one of the great spiritual teachers of our times, Thich Nhat Hahn. Unlike many documentaries these days, this film does not pander to celebrity curiosity (even an enlightened one). Walk With Me focuses on the rhythm, practices, and members of the Plum Village community that Thich Nhat Hahn founded. You get the sense while viewing the film that you are participating in a visual meditation practice. As a viewer, you watch the new members of the community make vows and don the dress of monk or nun. It is moving and mysterious. I watched the film in splendid awe as it celebrated the miracle of the mundane, silence, rhythm, justice, and commitment of everyday life. The phrase that kept popping into my head as I watch these monks and nuns journey through the tasks of their days at home, working with prisoners or travelling across the world with Thich Nhat Hahn - this is what a commitment to contemplative presence and practice looks like. This is what freedom looks like. This contemplative rhythm breaks the predictable nature of reaction and compulsion driving much of Western society. If you are wondering if the contemplative life is for you (in any of its multiple manifestations) watch this film. If it refreshes you, you may be hearing the invitation to dance to a different rhythm in this world.
‘The Woman Beside Wendell Berry: The Most Important Fiction Editor Almost No One Has Heard Of’ (Read it at yes! magazine)
Tanya Berry is a badass. I would of course never say this to her if I were lucky enough to cross her path. It doesn’t seem like a compliment one should share with her. As this article shows, Tanya Berry is not a person to be boxed in. I’ve been a longtime admirer of Tanya Berry, but it was her own sense of artfulness and openness in the recent documentary about her better-known-though-not-necessarily-better-half, Wendell Berry, entitled Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry (Laura Dunn, the filmmaker behind Look & See, and I talk about this extensively in our Contemplify conversation). Tanya Berry transcends categories by following an internal muse that leads in multiple directions; book editor, master of domestic arts, community leader, and farmer to name a few.
I say that Tanya Berry is a badass in a somewhat joking manner, but it strikes me that for a person today to follow a personal compass with an eye on communal impact puts them outside of the norm...which makes this person a badass. I applaud any and all who strive for the right naming and owning of identity on their own terms, while I simultaneously observe that it can quickly digress into self-absorbed absurdity. Those who do important work for the greater good of literature, politics, community, family, etc. without the need for the limelight is a leader worth following. Hence, Tanya Berry is a badass leader worth following.
Contemplify Update
The three (ok, actually more this time) most recent episodes of Contemplify…
Six episode of the Contemplify sponsored MiniSeries - Practice Without Preaching: Creating a Family Spirituality with Ali Kirkpatrick
(Episodes: Introduction, #1, #2, #3, #4, #5)
(Available at iTunes, Stitcher, Podbean, Overcast, Google Play or Contemplify.com)
Thank you for your kind words and open ears around the Contemplify basecamp! There are a whole crop of conversations I am eager to share as the days unfold.
Listen well + read often,
Paul
P.S. Eager to help spread the contemplative word? Please take a few seconds to rate and review Contemplify on Apple Podcasts. And thanks to all who have already done so!