The Journey of Ministry

What a great book to be reading as I fly to Abu Dhabi for my journey on learning about life for students at our campus in the Middle East.  The Journey of Ministry by Eddie Gibbs was a favorite book by his granddaughter, Ash, who is one of the RAs on campus at NYU.  Ash is actually written about by her grandfather in the book!  Gibbs presents a series of insights from his life of “practice as a scholar and a minister” during his 50+ years in the field.  He has taught at Fuller Theological Seminary in California since he completed his ministry across the continents.  Originally hailing from the UK, Gibbs presents his story from youth and meeting his future wife while studying to become a minister.  The chapters flow nicely, matching his own growing up process as a youth.  From family, to finding different directions (unsure where the road will take us), to facing “hurdles” in life, how to handle the challenges of people you love dying, working within teams and organizations, networking to expand your circle of influence, how to communicate and staying open to God as life gets busy, all presented in a clear and thoughtful manner.  I enjoyed the reflection questions presented at the end of each chapter that makes you think through his life’s lessons and concepts of being a better person.  The chapters include stories from Gibbs and his family and how he applied his learning through those stories.  Amazing how diverse his family is, each of his four children married someone from a different ethnic/racial/socio-economic background.  He has the most amazing melting pot there is for a family!  I just love the fact that his granddaughter felt it was her favorite book!  That in itself should be compelling to pick up the book.  We all need to learn more about ourselves and how to deal with the bumps.  For those who are not overly religious, he does present biblical readings throughout, but it is to further illustrate his points.   I enjoy the biblical references, so for me it reminded me of things I need to think through in life.  A nice read and perfect for the religious depths of people I would meet on my trip in Abu Dhabi.  Thanks for sharing Ash and I can only imagine what a great grandfather you have!

A Mathematician’s Lament

How does one celebrate the real study of math, not be creating curriculum that takes away all of the creativity and intrigue of solving the problems inherit in the subject matter as our society has now done, or at least so goes the story of the decline of math in A Mathematician’s Lament by Paul Lockhart.  This is a very short and fun read that begins with the lamentation of how school has cheated us out of our most fascinating and imaginative art form, the art of math!  Lockhart begins by illustrating how music has survived as a journey of learning conducted differently for each student and then leads into the decline and death of the study of math by rote education.  Our math education system has destroyed children’s natural curiosity and love of pattern-making. He agrees with many students in school that study math… it is stupid and boring!  Lockhart deconstructs the simplest of concepts – straight lines intersecting, add numbers, counting and how to view cubes and other structures.  Lockhart provides the challenge and uses two characters, Salviati and Simplicio to talk through why math has become an elementary step-by-step progression that makes no sense at all starting with elementary to middle school and high school.  The arguments are fascinating and make complete sense (the presentation of these facts are done in a “sarcastic and comical manner.”  I loved his attack on the course progression in high school and how they make no sense at all.  I often hear from college students the silliness of high school calculus and how it is repeated in calculus in college – using the same examples!!  After reading the book, I too wish that I had teachers who made me curious as to the problems that math makes us think through.  I wish I had Lockhart for Math, he left college teaching and now is on the high school math track.  A great way to look at subject matter from a very different vantage point.  Every math student should treat themselves to this simplistic, yet very deep set of questions about math!  Read this one!   

The Innocents

Strange that as I began reading this book I said… I just read this.  Funny to find out this is an adapted story from a book I read last month, the Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.  The book I just finished is The Innocents by Francesca Segal.  Interesting that a contemporary author would find a famous tale and update it to the present day, but this time placed in the UK using American characters and not UK characters in the US, specifically NYC.  Segal does a nice job using current day issues, though I didn’t like her characters as deeply as I did Wharton’s cast.  This is a love story using the tried and true “triangle” of man is in a relationship but falls for the woman who has some “major character flaws” – at least from mainstream society.  Adam is a young 28-year-old Jewish man who is seen as an upstanding citizen very involved in his religion and the people in his community.  He falls in love with young beautiful Rachel and as they plan their wedding, we meet Ellie (Rachel’s cousin) who returns from America (full of the American traits) – beautiful, voluptuous, and a former porn star, Ellie gets Adam’s attention and he begins to focus solely on leaving Rachel for her cousin.  The triangle brings in the grandmother, who is an important character in the story as the matriarch of the family.  What can stop Adam’s attraction? If you read Wharton’s book, guess what, same thing!  I won’t give it away.  There are a number of secondary stories and characters that add to the complexity of Adam and Ellie’s attraction.  While the scene is a bit different the age old questions remain, why do we get tempted to leave a good thing?    Again, I thought the depth of the development of characters was more real for me with Wharton.  I find this story to be a reminder of the old Monday night at the movies on NBC (sorry I am dating myself).  Sometimes someone doesn’t get what they deserve, as is the case with Adam.  I enjoyed the final ending in Wharton a bit better than Segal’s version.  For those in the Jewish tradition, the depth of this story might provide at least some intriguing correlations to your own life, for others, some mundane day-to-day moments.  I’d take a pass on this one, unless you like reading somewhat-trashy beach novels.  This would then be a pretty good read.  Sorry, not my cup of tea, especially after reading Wharton’s work last month.

Critique of Pure Reason

There are some books that need to be slowly read and absorbed.  This very long and philosophical read is one of them.  I still am in awe that an NYU student noted that this book as his favorite (and when I told another NYU student I was reading it, they shared how it was one of their favorite books), hmm… really?  Nonetheless, I did read it and no I won’t say it would be on my list, but boy did my brain hurt while I was engaged reading and re-reading the same paragraph over a number of days.  If you choose to read Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, be prepared to examine your own ethical decision making, think through what is logical thinking, and when you think… you are.  I am what?  You got it!  What is reason?  A man is intelligent, I am a man, I am an intelligent man.  Really?  I guess.  Well maybe not. Learn the law of contradiction, what is rationalism, what is cause and effect without relying on empirical wisdom, had enough yet?  No, good, how about focusing on the Transcendental Doctrine of Elements and Transcendental Aesthetic or Logic? Transcendental analytic and its concepts.  You think that is easy, then we move on to Metaphysical Deduction and its principles.  I’m sure you are hungry for more so let’s look at Schematism and the system of Principles of Pure Understanding and Axioms of Intuition and Perception.  Clearly you are hungry for more so Kant goes into our analogies of experience and the Refutation of Idealism.  He hits his real stride when discussing Transcendental Doctrine of Method.  This is a philosophy book and should only be read by those who get excited understanding the “why” and “why not” of life.  For me, give me a great story about a character, a challenge overcome, or a lesson learned.  I tried giving up understanding life and began living it a long time ago.  Please take no offense that philosophical underpinnings of life just aren’t for me at this juncture in my life.  I congratulate and have great esteem for students and faculty who get excited by these BIG questions.  For me, it’s back to reading something I can relax and enjoy.  This was not for me.

The Brothers Karamazov

It is always a great feeling when one picks up a classic story and really enjoys it, so it was with the Russian heavyweight author Fyodor Dostoevsky in his all-time great, The Brothers Karamazov.  This book has it all!  It connects religion, philosophy, tragedy, and a fight within our own human condition.  I have always enjoyed the Russian novelist’s works, this was no different.  The story centers around a family, a father and the sons he raised with different wives. We are introduced to the three brothers who are very different in their beliefs and how they approach life during the course of their lives; the role of religion, and how it influences and repulses each of the brothers.  The story is broken into twelve chapters and an epilogue (probably differs by the translation).  The relationships between father and sons include feuding, a love triangle, greed, anguish, and lead to an unexpected death of the father… but who caused the death, was it a murder?  Russian thought and dogma are presented with rational and nihilistic perspectives.  Is their free choice or are things guided by a God – great depth of thinking and presentation especially through the venue of a family of disparate individuals.  Once the father dies, each of the brothers look inwardly to think through their actions and thoughts and wonder if they (individually) were his killer, whether through real action or through their own wishful (for one) thought process.  Thinking through a father’s murder, does that make a man guilty?  What are these thoughts we have even if we aren’t the murderer?  And then the story comes to conclude with the trial and where each brother falls into their own conclusion about themselves, their relationships, their motives, and their shortcomings.  I completely understand why Freud loved this story, it has complex characters connected to a bond of blood, yet are so different in so many ways and levels.  Dostoevsky can write!  He creates the human flaw and emotes true feeling through his characters.  There is so much subtext and meaning that it makes for a difficult read.  Life is not easy, nor are the characters who “strut and fret upon the stage” and like the father “are here no more.”  An all-time classic which deserves to be read, though I will admit, you really need to pay attention, and be able to put this book down and come back when you are ready.  Not an easy read.  I can’t imagine how much is lost in the translation.  Masterful story!