Seven Sins for a Life Worth Living
by Roger Housden
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Book Summary Information
Author: Roger HousdenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-12-06
ISBN: 0307336719
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Harmony
Book Reviews of Seven Sins for a Life Worth Living
Book Review: lighten up and live longer
Summary: 3 Stars
Chalk one up for the marketing department. When I saw this catchy title at our public library, I took the bait. Not that I'm sorry I read the book, but I was hoping for something more substantial given the promising table of contents. The seven sins worth living for are the pleasures of enjoying the beauty of the five senses, being foolish, not knowing, not being perfect, doing nothing useful, being ordinary, and of coming home. The good news, says Housden, is that no upgrades are needed to live this way, that if we can learn to be present in the moment and to each other, "life is already enhanced enough as it is." His stated purpose reminds me of a friend's joke: "Lighten up, you'll be dead a long time."
Our readiness to follow our culture's cues leads us astray. We pride ourselves on being important, busy, and driven, developing personas that, deep down, we intuit are at best superficial and perhaps even phony. If you asked most anyone, they would agree that a new car, an in-box stuffed with hundreds of emails, or a better address do not, ultimately, provide a deep sense of satisfaction, but that's not how we live. Religion, too, comes in for heavy criticisms in Housden's view; it generates guilt and all sorts of inhibitions. In selected portions of the book Housden shares from his own life how he has developed a more centered self that honors the inner journey as much or more as the outer journey. Throughout the book he sprinkles trenchant aphorisms regarding life lived more joyfully, more playfully, more fully. "When you die," goes one piece of advice, "God and the angels will hold you accountable for all the pleasures you were allowed in life that you denied yourself." Learning to be at home in the world and with yourself is no easy task; Housden gets you started.
Summary of Seven Sins for a Life Worth Living
?Conventional wisdom,? says Roger Housden, ?tells us that nobody goes to heaven for having a good time.? Seven Sins for a Life Worth Living, then, is a refreshing, liberating, and decidedly welcome dose of unconventional wisdom that awakens us to the simple delights and transformative joys of the world around us.With elegance, gentle humor, and remarkable openness, Housden takes us along as he recalls his personal journey toward an appreciation of what he calls the Seven Pleasures: The Pleasure of All Five Senses, The Pleasure of Being Foolish,The Pleasure of Not Knowing, The Pleasure of Not Being Perfect, The Pleasure of Doing Nothing Useful, The Pleasure of Being Ordinary, and The Pleasure of Coming Home.
Housden writes, for instance, of submitting to the ultimate folly of falling in love, of celebrating our imperfections, of coming to understand the virtues of the Slow Food movement while enjoying an all-afternoon lunch in a small French village, and of discovering in a Saharan cave that, however extraordinary our surroundings, ?we are human, a glorious nothing much to speak of??and learning to be at peace with the notion.
Such pleasures may be suspect in today?s achievement-driven, tightly scheduled, relent-lessly self-improving, conspicuously consumptive culture, but surely the greater sin lies in letting them slip away moment by precious moment. ?The purpose of this book,? says Housden, ?is to inspire you to lighten up and fall in love with the world and all that is in it.? Reading it is a pleasure indeed.
?When you die,God and the angels will hold you accountablefor all the pleasures you were allowed in life that you denied yourself.?
Roger Housden, author of the bestselling Ten Poems series, presents a joyously affirmative, warmly personal, and spiritually illuminating meditation on the virtues of opening ourselves up to pleasures like being foolish, not being perfect, and doing nothing useful, the pleasure of not knowing, and even (would you believe it?) the pleasure of being ordinary.
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