Becoming Wise

Short review: I really like Krista Tippett's perspective and voice. Her focus on wisdom and ‘spiritual technologies' are unusual in the world of journalism. Good news and wisdom are not areas where there are lots of focus. So I think we need to pay attention and support it when we see it.

I think the audiobook version of this book is the best version. Because a lot of the book is made up of interviews, you might as well listen to the actual person instead of read the interview. But it can feel like a clip show, especially when you recognize the clips from their original interviews.

I am a bit concerned with how she frames ‘spiritual technologies'. I think the way she uses that phrase can lead her (and the reader) to think of these ideas and practices as tools to overcome the spiritual (or body). Traditionally the term has been spiritual practices. Because you do not overcome the need for them. These are the tools that help us along a pathway for a destination that we do not get to in this life.

I think the book was a little disjointed. And I think there would have been some benefit with more internal evaluation of the ideas.

But overall I did enjoy the book and I will keep reading her. My full review of the book is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/becoming-wise/

Krista Tippett is the host of the podcast On Being and as such has the chance to interview hundreds of physicists, spiritual leaders, thinkers, activists and more on how they grapple with meaning in the world.

In Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living, she narrows her focus on words, flesh, love, faith and hope and dips in and out of a wellspring of past interviews. She's a practiced interviewer playing host to some incredibly smart folks.

The language is dense and prescriptive and is made for thoughtful contemplation not the aggressive consumption of my usual fare. You simply can't chug through Rilke like you're reading Rowling. I found myself tripping over the flowery optimism of the language. Still, I appreciate the exploration of ideas like how love demands effort and we should fight against its cheapening by appending it to Fridays, ice cream and “these shoes!” How faith is just as important to the atheist, and that science and religion need not be mutually exclusive. It's just that when epiphanies are had on every page they tend to overlap and congeal diminishing their impact for me.