SPIRITUALITY OF IMPERFECTION, THE
Author: Ernest Kurtz
List Price: $22.50
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ISBN: 0553083007
Publisher: Bantam (01 April, 1992)
Sales Rank: 617,224
Average Customer Rating: 4.79 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
More than a book, this is an experience
This book is to spirituality as riding a rollercoaster is to physics. It is not a read; it is an experience. Kurtz and Ketcham have managed to tell their own story in such a way that the reader is invited to share in that experience. Finding this spirituality of imperfection in Alcoholics Anonymous and the twelve-step program, K&K have scoured spiritual writings throughout history to find the words to describe their experience. Boldface quotes and stories color almost every page.
K&K find the essence of the spiritual in human imperfections and failure, in the inevitability of pain. Spirituality is not the evasion of consequences or errors, but rather learning how to live with them. They call trying to be perfect the most tragic human mistake. They are clear, spirituality is found in asking the right questions, not in finding the right answers.
Perhaps every reader of this book will not be able to hear it's music. Perhaps only those who have been wounded by life, need it. Perhaps only those who have drunk deeply of failure will find nourishment here. All I know is that I did, and to Kurtz and Ketcham I will always be grateful.
Rating: 5 out of 5
This book changed my life
from the author of DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF: A PERSONAL APPROACH TO DREAM INTERPRETATION; and DREAM BACK YOUR LIFE: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO DREAMS, DAYDREAMS, AND FANTASIES.I read THE SPIRITUALITY OF IMPERFECTION at the end of 1993, at the suggestion of a friend. I had hesitated to read it because it was "a recovery book" and I expected that designation to limit its benefits. What I found, however, were stories that confirmed that to grow we must be willing to fail and make mistakes. This is what it means to be human. With this book's encouragement, hope, and humor, I embarked on my speaking and writing career, willing to blunder and to learn from others. Since then, I have recommended and bought this book as a gift many times. I list this title in my handouts for nearly all of my self-help classes and in the bibliographies of the books I write.
Rating: 5 out of 5
The Broad Canvas of Humanity
Telling your story and listening to the stories of others breaks barriers. Like all good literature entering into it brings an experience which can be shared. Life which is shared is lived in double dimensions and can form community....can divide loneliness. This book contains insights into more shallow insights-- I want to say by that this book, these authors, take the "common wisdom" and bring forth extraordinary insight in my view. I bought this book and read it several years ago. I pulled it off the shelf to read once again and, once again, I am discovering new meaning at a deeper lever for me. The authors have brought to bear the wisdom of many religious traditions and those traditions which did not have a religious background but which was born of human wisdom. It's a keeper that reveals something each time I read it--I can't wait to set it down and come back to it later. Similar Products
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