The Road Less Travelled and Beyond by Dr Scott Peck – Thinking
I’ve started reading through The Road Less Travelled and Beyond by Dr Scott Peck on the tram on the way to work when (hopefully) I am at my most awake and aware! The book itself is split into 3 parts, with 8 sections between them. The very first section in the very first part PART I: The Crusade Against Simplism is entitled Thinking. It’s been interesting so far getting into his discussion about Thinking, its not something that we normally think about (how ironic), but as Peck points out, not thinking about thinking is to our detriment. Dictionary.com has two relevant definitions for the verb ‘to think’. 1. ‘To have a conscious mind, to some extent of reasoning, remembering experiences, making rational decisions, etc.’ and 2. ‘to employ one’s mind rationally and objectively in evaluating or dealing with a given situation’. In the book, Peck uses examples from client interactions to explain and illustrate how many of us think, and fail to think. It is such a big topic that unfortunately we rarely delve into, but there is so much to discuss in regards to this topic that I don’t really know where to start!
The overall theme to this section of the book is a ‘crusade’, as the part 1 title indicates, a ‘crusade against simplistic thinking’. (Dictionary.com describes simplism as ‘the tendency to oversimplify an issue or a problem by ignoring complexities or complications’.) We, collectively, suffer from a severe lack of thought and maturity in thinking. We prescribe to the current mode of thinking that is common to everyone and we think that that thinking is okay, without thinking it through. If I put it down to one word it’s discernment, but not just discernment. Dictionary.com describes discernment as ‘the faculty of discerning; discrimination; acuteness of judgement and understanding’, that description implies thought and wisdom. Wisdom, ‘knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action’ (Dictionary.com), is also connected to thinking, it implies thought. It can be seen as an outcome of rational and just thinking. But there is more to it than that, if one just thinks but has no action, or thinks but thinks wrongly, then wisdom may not be an outflow from thinking.
I’m getting convoluted (so I’ll stop right here). My real purpose of writing anything was to let you know how much this has resonated with me as a topic that I need to (ironically) think more about, and that I believe we all need to think about more, every day of our lives, because every day of our lives our thinking is challenged by someone else.
If you want to think more about it yourself try reading The Road Less Travelled and Beyond, or one of Dr Peck’s earlier books The Road Less Travelled or Further Along the Road Less Travelled. These books are meat for the mind…with much to chew on.
Allegory
I know allegory isn’t to may people’s tastes, I guess in many ways whether you like it depends on what the allegory is. It’s interesting to note that some of the famous books and movies such as C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe series, J.R.R. Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and, at least some say, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series have been poked at with the Christian allegory stick. There are many more, but a favourite of mine is John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
Nature lives out an allegory every single day. After the dark of night, the sun rises and lights up the world. After the darkness and cold of winter, its bitter winds and sleeting rain, we enter into spring, flowers blooming, ice thawing, beautiful joyful spring.
I wonder in many ways why allegory means so much to us, I understand the concept allegories helps us to create further associations and helps us to think a different way about something. Often about life, sometimes about God…
Plan 2009 – Book Swap
So I’ve already found one modification for the 2009 Plan, but I don’t think it is a major enough course change to make my plans a scrap. Basically, while I was visiting my family in Tasmania on the Australia Day weekend Dad offered that I should borrow The Road Less Travelled and Beyond by Dr. Scott Peck. Basically, this means that the only change to my plan (so far) is that I’ll be reading The Road Less Travelled and Beyond rather than The Road Less Travelled. I’ll probably end up reading that book at some stage anyway.
Heyer + others – that is, I love books
I’ve been getting back into a favourite author of mine. I don’t actually have any of her books anymore, having gotten rid of them a year or so back before I moved. But I recently visited a secondhand book store near my house that was packed to the rafters with books and antique paraphernalia, and in one section my eye caught a number of Georgette Heyer’s titles, and I ended up purchasing her novel about William the Conqueror. It is a fascinating depiction of the life of an ambitious man.
I find those of Heyer’s novels that are based on historical accounts the most interesting, maybe because they are less and less cheesy in the romance department, or the fact that the story is generally focussed on the male characters rather than the female, making the story less cheesy. Maybe the cheesy scale is a matter of opinion. No doubt, many would still find it way too cheesy for their liking, I’m not arguing about that, just commenting on finding an author I had left behind, and have rediscovered just recently to my own delight. If my enjoyment of such an author’s books disgusts you, just wait ’til I bring out the big guns…
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