There’s a theory that people come into our lives to teach us what we need to know. They may be people we like or dislike and we may not always care for their lessons but the knowledge we gain from them helps move us through our lives. I like that theory but I think it needs to be expanded to include books. Along with entertainment and education, the right book at the right time can change a person’s future. I’m still giving thanks for a book that came my way about twenty-five years ago. I’ll always be indebted to Pat Conroy for writing The Prince of Tides. If anyone missed the announcements, Mr. Conroy writes stories about the perennial outsider. Whether the focus is on a Marine’s family readjusting to a new environment or the English Major in a military college, his people don’t think they fit in the orderly pattern that makes up their world. Because they don’t fit, Outsiders tend to stay on the defensive. The first lesson in The Prince of Tides is how defending yourself can cost you everything you care for in life. Tom Wingo, the coach in The Prince of Tides has had good…
Both psychiatry and religion care about the human spirit. I know they have seemed like enemies at times and I doubt if the extremists in either practice trust the other but trust has never been high on any extremist’s list, so that’s not a fair comparison. No, at their best, I believe both practices have overlapping interests but by tradition, they’ve rarely worked together. In The Road Less Traveled, Dr. Scott Peck associated the spiritual growth demanded by faith with growing emotional maturity but these were positive associations. To me, his more exciting, revolutionary work was chronicled in People of the Lie: The Hope For Healing Human Evil. In this book Dr. Peck suggested that evil could be cataloged and classified like any emotional illness and, more importantly, it could be treated. Dr. Peck defined evil as when a person uses his or her political power to let some one else suffer, rather than face their own personal shortcomings. The classic example is when one person lets another take the blame for his or her misbehavior. Now, under that definition, everyone has committed an evil act at some point in their lives but committing an evil act doesn’t make a…