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A review by malachi_oneill
Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce Feiler
4.0
Referred to me by a friend.
I always like reading books referred by friends or colleagues.
Helps me understand them much better.
Overall I liked this book.
I found myself distracted quite a bit throughout, however.
I'm usually one that thrives on examples of points being made.
In this case I became a little overwhelmed.
I think it perhaps it had to do with the cases themselves.
In many (most?) of the cases, I could not help but wonder about the trail of transitions that each of these interviewees was leaving behind in their own lives.
Not judging - just overwhelming for me.
Many of the transitions were of their choosing, thereby forcing events and changes upon others (some quite dramatic and perhaps traumatic). I found myself distracted by that, often.
I kept asking, as well, a sort of conundrum - is the lack of formal structure and our shared culture in our modern society causing a lot of these transitions in the first place, or have the transitions always been there and now they are just more visible and vocal?
Is the lack of formal structure (ritual, depth of culture, connectedness) exasperating the situation itself?
I think the author's point was that today's culture and society and it's condition of instability is just the way it is - and I appreciate that - he's correct.
I kept getting distracted by my own thoughts of trying to understand root cause analysis of it.
Just my brain trying to understand it.
Follow up question:
I'd like another book on a couple different topics -
People faced with similar struggles but that found stability and help in transitions in long-standing traditions, rituals, etc. - Not just personalized, individualized solutions but what community - based, historical, traditions or rituals have people benefited from and how?
It'd also be interesting - and I found myself distracting myself with this question as well -
Stories of people that faced challenges and instead of transitioning, figured out how to work through some of their own personal challenges in terms of staying together, or going to therapy to learn how to be a better (fill in the blank) for their children, or to deal with trauma, etc.
Perhaps I'm wondering how resiliency factors into this, or commitment, or other outcomes.
I realize that not every situation can be resolved with resiliency or commitment but there were enough examples in the book that I kept wondering about if there was an additional layer of initial triggering circumstances that would be interesting to understand (internal vs. external stimulus, etc.) Not judging anyone. Just curious and found myself being distracted by.
I really liked the ending - about Telling Stories.
It's a theme I've just been coming up against lately - People are dying to be heard.
Like literally dying, and they just want to be heard, felt heard, acknowledged as humans, as individuals.
Very touching ending with his Dad.
Really gave me a lot to think about in terms of what a gift is to give to others to just be able to listen to them and have them feel heard.
I wonder if nursing homes can or do a project where they do Guided Autobiographies for their residents.
I was impressed by the amount of work that went into the interviews themselves and detail.
Tremendous amount of work.
I really liked the interview questions at the end of the book.
Very insightful.
I always like reading books referred by friends or colleagues.
Helps me understand them much better.
Overall I liked this book.
I found myself distracted quite a bit throughout, however.
I'm usually one that thrives on examples of points being made.
In this case I became a little overwhelmed.
I think it perhaps it had to do with the cases themselves.
In many (most?) of the cases, I could not help but wonder about the trail of transitions that each of these interviewees was leaving behind in their own lives.
Not judging - just overwhelming for me.
Many of the transitions were of their choosing, thereby forcing events and changes upon others (some quite dramatic and perhaps traumatic). I found myself distracted by that, often.
I kept asking, as well, a sort of conundrum - is the lack of formal structure and our shared culture in our modern society causing a lot of these transitions in the first place, or have the transitions always been there and now they are just more visible and vocal?
Is the lack of formal structure (ritual, depth of culture, connectedness) exasperating the situation itself?
I think the author's point was that today's culture and society and it's condition of instability is just the way it is - and I appreciate that - he's correct.
I kept getting distracted by my own thoughts of trying to understand root cause analysis of it.
Just my brain trying to understand it.
Follow up question:
I'd like another book on a couple different topics -
People faced with similar struggles but that found stability and help in transitions in long-standing traditions, rituals, etc. - Not just personalized, individualized solutions but what community - based, historical, traditions or rituals have people benefited from and how?
It'd also be interesting - and I found myself distracting myself with this question as well -
Stories of people that faced challenges and instead of transitioning, figured out how to work through some of their own personal challenges in terms of staying together, or going to therapy to learn how to be a better (fill in the blank) for their children, or to deal with trauma, etc.
Perhaps I'm wondering how resiliency factors into this, or commitment, or other outcomes.
I realize that not every situation can be resolved with resiliency or commitment but there were enough examples in the book that I kept wondering about if there was an additional layer of initial triggering circumstances that would be interesting to understand (internal vs. external stimulus, etc.) Not judging anyone. Just curious and found myself being distracted by.
I really liked the ending - about Telling Stories.
It's a theme I've just been coming up against lately - People are dying to be heard.
Like literally dying, and they just want to be heard, felt heard, acknowledged as humans, as individuals.
Very touching ending with his Dad.
Really gave me a lot to think about in terms of what a gift is to give to others to just be able to listen to them and have them feel heard.
I wonder if nursing homes can or do a project where they do Guided Autobiographies for their residents.
I was impressed by the amount of work that went into the interviews themselves and detail.
Tremendous amount of work.
I really liked the interview questions at the end of the book.
Very insightful.