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A review by bingbongbeepbeep
Permission to Dream by Chris Gardner, MIM Eichler-Rivas
2.0
I've recently picked up reading in the last couple of months and have stuck to the fiction, young adult, & sci-fi realm so branching out into nonfiction was an interesting pivot. It was a fresh change experiencing the ups and downs Chris was challenged and gifted with throughout his life. It painfully addressed my reality that I one hundred percent am that person who is everyone else's biggest cheerleader but ignore my own wants and needs. It resonated with me greatly when he said "empowering others to create their own masterpieces". I am no public speaker, but I love giving others the opportunity to share their own story. I don't think of myself as a leader but I am the world's best listener. It dawns on me more now since completing the novel that I too must look at my self in the mirror and experience that moment of self reflection to also participate in being a cheerleader for myself. "1. If I could wake up tomorrow and be or do anything, what would it be? 2. What did you do today that will lead to that tomorrow?" Those two questions seriously create an intensity of potential energy. Yet funnily enough out of all the life lessons shared in the novel, I still found myself at the end wanting to hear more about the journey of the harmonica. I was bamboozled when each excerpt of recollections steered in every other direction instead of that.
On a more serious note, the pandemic has brought a lot of awareness to the harsh realities someone like me a woman and being half Asian and half African American in the United States still face in 2021. I listened to each chapter with a certain familiarity yet I was able to still construct new perspective, sympathy, and empathy with Chris and his creative storytelling. There's an innate saying instilled within me infinitely on repeat that I have to prove myself to others. There are times where I feel like I'm on autopilot that I don't know what I even want. So hearing Chris simply ask what do I dream of while being paired along with my own conscientiousness of atomic time, I felt an essence of relief wave over me with hearing "baby steps, one hand, one foot". Still, I cannot express to you how outright funny the realization was when it hit me from where I thought this was novel was going and to how brought me somewhere completely different. It took me longer than expected to read this, but it's definitely given me wisdom to share with those at the right place and at the right time. The universe always has a funny way of working.
On a more serious note, the pandemic has brought a lot of awareness to the harsh realities someone like me a woman and being half Asian and half African American in the United States still face in 2021. I listened to each chapter with a certain familiarity yet I was able to still construct new perspective, sympathy, and empathy with Chris and his creative storytelling. There's an innate saying instilled within me infinitely on repeat that I have to prove myself to others. There are times where I feel like I'm on autopilot that I don't know what I even want. So hearing Chris simply ask what do I dream of while being paired along with my own conscientiousness of atomic time, I felt an essence of relief wave over me with hearing "baby steps, one hand, one foot". Still, I cannot express to you how outright funny the realization was when it hit me from where I thought this was novel was going and to how brought me somewhere completely different. It took me longer than expected to read this, but it's definitely given me wisdom to share with those at the right place and at the right time. The universe always has a funny way of working.