Rating: 4.6/5
First read by the Wallace…his legacy did not disappoint! This “book” is the author’s commencement speech to the graduating class of 2005 at Kenyon College. Wallace integrates a series of parables and doles out wisdom on living a compassionate life and exercising agency in our everyday interactions. I admire brevity and purposeful writing/stories especially when the writing is straightforward but also leaves space for the reader to think. This is the perfect example of prose that is compact but has impact.
Insights/Thoughts:
- A meaningful life isn’t presented to us on a platter. It requires us to continuously and creatively see and think and reframe and appreciate what life throws at us and what it doesn’t
- We are uncritically self-centred in our own narratives; this is our default mode of thinking. A more compassionate and fulfilling life requires more effortful thinking that requires us to step outside our bubble and see the world through other perspectives.
Favourite Quotes:
“Learning how to think” really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.