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And Never Stop Dancing: Thirty More True Things You Need to Know Now |
Author: Gordon Livingston
Published: 2006-03-21 |
List price: $20.00
Our price: $15.40
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As of: December 04th, 2008 03:10:15 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Insightful and Inspiring!
Gordon Livingston has given the world yet another wonderful book with his latest "And Never Stop Dancing: Thirty More True Things You Need to Know Now". In thirty simple and easy to read and understand essays of "truth" the author unfolds his views of life and wisdom. Each essay is an observational piece from the author's own heart and soul. He makes his points without having to beat the reader over-the-head with his point of view.
I was moved by several of his short pieces in the book but in particular, his story relating to his tour of duty in Vietnam and his efforts with enemy POWS. His courage was not about facing just combat but at dealing with the much larger issues on the conduct of how the military treated prisoners. He made a moral decision that effected his career as an officer. Having faced these same kind of personal issues in Vietnam myself, I know well that there is a huge price to pay when one choses to oppose what is wrong. He showed a lot of class and stayed true to himself and his beliefs. This story shows that the author is not just a "good talker" but also a man who listens to that inner voice within; he walks his talk!
There are many interesting stories that he uses to express his view of life. The result of reading all of them is to feel much richer in spirit - for having learned something new and to realize that there are still some good people out there in the world who are trying to make it a better place.
The book would make a wonderful gift to those people you love in your life. This book has been given the highest book ratings by both The American Authors Association and The Military Writer's Society of America. I also give it my personal recommendation.
Life lessons
We are never too old to learn new truths about ourselves and life in general.
I read this book in one afternoon. I couldn't put it down. I discovered, very
quickly, that this is one of those books you don't hurry through. There's just too much good
stuff to think about and ponder.
So, I plan to read it again - slowly, one chapter every few days. Only then will I truly
appreciate the wisdom and lessons to be learned from Dr. Livingston.
I plan to buy several copies to send to close friends, something I've never
one before. Wisdom is meant to be shared.
 "ah ha" observations
The reader gets the benefit of the author's years of experience sitting with hundreds and hundreds of patients and his synthesis of their problems, his observations and potential remedies. I found this book to contain a number of insightful observations however it falls short of answering: "ok, so now what does one do?" In many of his lessons, Dr. Livingston digresses in his views on war and politics which seem to be detached side-pockets to the core message he is trying to convey. I found that this book fell short of the author's prior work ("Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart") but nevertheless contains a series of very insightful observations - including my favorites below:
Chap 7
It is better to be spent than saved
I frequently ask patients, "What are you saving yourself for?" People spend a lot of time conserving energy, usually while they wait for some event outside themselves to trigger their taking action...Passivity is the enemy of progress in therapy...I prefer to challenge people to relinquish passivity, stop waiting for answers outside themselves, mobilize their courage and determination, and try to discover what changes will bring them closer to others and to people they want to be.
Chap 17
We all live downstream
Most of the threats to human existence derive from the desire to bend the world to satisfy our need for rapid gratification. This, of course, is the basic philosophy of a consumer society. Look at the message conveyed by the advertising with which we are inundated. Over and over we are presented with images of people who are clearly enjoying life more than we are. They are younger, more attractive, with more friends and apparently an inexhaustible supply of leisure time. And how can we be more like them? By spending money, of course...At some level, all of us are sensible enough to know that what we have and how we look are going to keep us off the pages of People magazine indefinitely. Still, a chronic sense of dissatisfaction pursues us, and it is hard to live in a world in which we imagine that most other people are happier than we are. What this creates is a kind of disposable society that elevates a desire for the "new and improved" version of everything to a level of desirability that can never be satisfied. The state of mind encompasses both greed and envy; they're called deadly sins for a reason. If our relentless pursuit of the latest thing is the engine that drives our consumerist culture, the by-products and side effects are worrisome and include a perceptible decline in the environment in which we must live, and ultimately in the quality of the lives we will lead.
Chap 27
Happiness Requires an ability to tolerate uncertainty
"Those whose are willing to improvise do better than those who imagine they are working from a script. Put another way, if we think of ourselves as (largely) the authors of our own life dramas, we are likely to enjoy the trip more than those who rely on others for instruction.
Chap 30
Most people die with their music still inside them
...we might do well to write one (an obituary) for ourselves, starting in our twenties, and revise it every year or two. What better way to confront who we are, what we're doing, what it all means, and whether we are making any progress toward becoming the people we would like to be remembered as?...what we write about ourselves can be a work of fiction. But the process of selecting how we would wish to be remembered has a way of focusing attention on what we have done, or - more important - failed to do with our lives...the real power of the exercise, however lies in the regret most of us feel (and that is never mentioned in actual obituaries) about our unfulfilled dreams. It turns out that few of us are living the lives we imagined for ourselves when we were young. We are often better off financially than we would have predicted, but it is unusual for someone to report that he is happier than he ever thought he would be. In fact, there is a kind of wistful quality among most people in middle age or older. This frequently takes the form of nostalgia for a simpler life that held more possibilities than the one we are actually living.
 Good but often sanctimonious
I really enjoyed Gordon Livingston's first book "Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart" - a gathering of insights gleaned from four decades of listening to the same problems over and over from his psychiatrist's chair. However, with the deserved success of said book he has now delivered a sequel that tends to stray on occasion from the "observations on life that I've gleaned over the years" take that made his first book such a hit.
To be sure, there are quite a few chapters that are solid and wise - not unlike the first book. At other times, he strays from the psychiatric profession and preaches his cynical political and social opinions, which I did not sign up for. His hypocrisy of complaining about folks on television ("experts") who argue political and social opinions should not be lost. Apparently they shouldn't do our thinking for us on these issues... but he can. Thanks Doc.
For some reason, he presumes that we want to hear his opinions on the Bush administration, about universal "tolerance" of others (what about standards? or excellence?), the pharmaceutical industry, the military, and his constant carping on those with strong religious convictions.
For me, personally, he wore out his welcome in this book. I do recommend reading it though since there remain several pearls of wisdom in it. I would simply caution the reader to read each chapter with a sharp eye for when Livingston gets out of his therapist's chair and up on his soapbox.
Learn and then move on!
Another great book by Dr. Gordon Livingston. You can learn how to move out of the rut and move on with your life. You wouldn't sit in your car racing your engine and spinning your tires if you weren't moving out of the mud hole would you? Of course not, you would find a way to get out and continue on your way. Well do it! Read this book and get that extra push you need.
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