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- Verified Buyer
First off, I'm not Christian in any way, and I'm not atheistic. I am a spiritual wanderer at this point in my life, which feels like such an aberrant, social pariah type title to carry in a world that is mired by obnoxious categorical thinking, and vacuous forms of "nominal" descriptions of one's spiritual identity. It's all so tidy and sterile, almost too symmetrical, for something as wondrously mysterious, exciting, and endlessly enthralling as the deepest questions that really get to the heart of "What it means to be human?"I discovered Thomas Merton by pure happenstance, at a small, private catholic college, where I felt I misjudged him terribly, letting my own spiritual conflicts completely taint my thorough enjoyment of the depth of Thomas Merton's wonderful autobiography. Nonetheless, something from his autobiography lingered with me;otherwise, I doubt I'd search out for his more spiritual-centric books, like this one.The title is derived from a John Donne sermon, where the famous, yet so deceptively simple line "No Man is an Island," sticks out of that sermon like a sore-thumb. Our meditation on the death of another shouldn't be self-pitying, morbid, or an attempt to utilize it selfishly for another fundamentalist hell sermon (providing reasons for gloating/self-gratification over the thought that you're in heaven, and those many others are not..).Like John Donne, Thomas Merton's thoughtful, poetic book, exploring the tenets of true spirituality-charity,love, peace, humane poverty, Elizabeth Bishop style empathy- is thankfully the greatest antithesis to the life-hating, very dark, cold, almost nihilistic fundamentalism that is out there to steal out hearts away, make us fear life, and cause us to think love and charity is only for our own selfish benefit.This is spirituality that heals, and makes spiritual wanderers, lost in the mire of so many voices saying "what is right theology, what is wrong theology," and all those clashing, irritating, world-shrinking shouts of "God is this..." "God is that.." All this stuff deprives any real spiritual thinker from peace, forbearance of the soul, and it is Thomas Merton's writing that will keep you afloat, offering you such wise words of wisdom about how to live life fully with the right type of mindset; one that emanates peace.
