This will hopefully be a blog with other writers; members of the book club. So I am putting my name in the title of the entries I write and also adding my name as a tag label. Hopefully this will help us keep straight who wrote what about the books.
BOOK: Nature & the Human Soul By Bill Plotkin
Chapter 1: Circle& Arc – Crisis & Opportunity
-- this is a book I am reading with a book club of friends. It was said by some that it is good to keep a book journal or write thoughts & notes about what I read. So here it is.
A few quotes and my thoughts or ponderings in relationship to them
First, I want to mention that the title of this chapter makes me think of geometry.
Quote; “This book is my contribution to the global effort to create a viable human-Earth partnership.”
Thinking on the author’s purpose reminds me of what my Anatomy & Physiology teacher uses to say.
“Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.”
I say this because though I don’t fully agree with the author’s purpose, I do agree that God made us responsible to take care of His creation and to use good stewardship with what He gave us (the earth and its resources) as well as to have good relationships with people. I guess that’s somewhat similar to what the author is saying.
Quote; “...how we might raise children, support teenagers, and ripen ourselves…”
1st- “ripen ourselves" sounds funny. Like we are all tomatoes hanging on a vine or something.
2nd- he says something here that is in sync with how I view parenting. Notice he says RAISE children and SUPPORT teenagers. We raise our children, but when they become teenagers (young adults) we move from the realm of raising them to supporting and guiding them through their transformation into adults. Honestly, I don’t think one can really ‘raise’ a teenager. The raising is done before they reach that age and once they get t that age, their mind is pretty set in some regards and trying to ‘raise them’ (like we do a child) is just not going to work. They will fight being raised like a child. It is time to support and guide. This doesn’t mean there is no discipline, there still is (even adults are disciplined for wrong doings). Maybe it’s just a mindset.
The author says his 2nd premise I for us to embrace nature and soul as our wisest and most trustworthy guides. God is my wisest and most trust worthy guide. God did, however, create nature and our souls and He created us in His image and all He made is good. He says we need to not be egocentric but we need to be soul centric. I prefer God-centric. The author describes soul centric as “imaginative, ecocentric, cooperative based, just, compassionate, and sustainable”. I think all of those pretty much line up with being God Centric, except maybe the ecocentric part- but God does want us to take care of the earth He created.
The author’s 3rd premise for the book is that "every human being has a unique and mystical relationship to the world, and that the conscious discovery and cultivation of that relationship is at the core of true adulthood”
Again, though I agree we all do have our individual purposes (as well as the purpose for all of us) and we are made to have a relationship with the creator of this world, we are to be caretakers of the world He created, and knowing and cultivating God's purposes for us & our relationships are what makes us more complete, I’m not going with ‘mystical’ jazz. It is not mystical. It is laid out in God’s word that we were created for a purpose and we have our own uniqueness in purposes and talents and that we are to be cultivating a relationship with God and with others.
I guess I can go with ‘transpersonal’- because it does take us beyond just ourselves. It is not just about US.
Well, that was basically the first 2 pages. I’ll go lighter in the rest of the book. I won’t do page of notes for each section from here on out.
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