After being squeezed between two suffocating rocks for 148 pages, one is hard-pressed to fully identify the emotion.  Is it rage?  Confusion?  Is it the vague sense that something is wrong with the world?  Is the killing of twins a wrong that deserves redress from outsiders with equally-troubling convictions?

Who can say?

Achebe’s classic has sold over two million copies.  I first read the book in college as a green anthropology student.  It was since brought back to my attention through a student and I decided to revisit it.  And it was worth the trip.

Short, yet gripping, Things Fall Apart is the story of Okwonko, a much-lauded, brooding man of the Umuofia clan of the Igbo tribe.  He is a well-known wrestler and warrior with ambitions in his tribe.  He has a large compound, prosperous yams, and many children.  He is molded into the ways of his tribe to the point where he follows the laws and customs to the letter, going so far as to condemn himself to exile for the good of his clan.

Over time, the white man comes to the villages in the Lower Niger bringing more than their skin.  Christianity and British-style government – strange customs indeed – arrive to upset the delicate balance between tribesman and tribesman, tribesman and stranger, and tribesman and gods.  Things Fall Apart carefully documents the life of the tribe, through Okonkwo, in all of its wisdom and harshness, setting them against the European colonization later in the book when we can no longer decide who should take credit and blame.

So much of misunderstanding is forged in the uneasy balance between what we are convinced is right, and what others know is true.  We often forget that when we come to another with a truth, it is often only as a guest in someone else’s home.  Achebe’s brutal reminder is that even a doomed hero such as Okwonko may not deserve his own fate, no matter how we judge him by our own standards.

Things Fall Apart is a slice of life.  A mere portrait in a gallery of such stories of tradition in the face of progress.  But it is worth a look.  I would ask, however, that as you take in the color and patterns of the delicate painting, do not be quick to judge it.  For, even as you turn the pages, you may find yourself streaked, smeared, and on trial.

-josh

And frustration.

We never know when we will meet the teacher, it’s true.  But when that teacher comes along, we sure know we’ve met.  In many ways, that is the spirit of Dan Millman’s Way of the Peaceful Warrior (HJ Kramer, Inc., 1980).

I picked up this book after many years of hearing about it.  I have seen Millman speak, and know others who have read this book, and the other day, I decided to pull it off the shelf and read it.

Essentially, Peaceful Warrior tells the story of Millman’s journey with a mysterious gas station attendant, Socrates.  Millman, a student athlete at Berkeley, encounters this odd figure one night and is swept into a world that has always been right before his eyes, but just out of reach – it is a world where one can find happiness through discipline, and joy in a world of illusions.  Socrates’ teachings slice Millman’s perceptions to shreds, and challenge his fears, ultimately liberating the mind.

The goal of the book, as far as my experience with it, is not to get caught up in the details, wondering whether the book is a totally true and accurate account of Millman’s life, but rather, to consider deeply if what we believe is true at our deepest levels, or only at the level of illusion.

There is little ultimately new in this book in terms of teachings and philosophy, but that is not a knock on its content.  Rather, it is a recognition that the book’s tag line, “A Book That Changes Lives,” refers to looking at your old beliefs in a new way.  A way, in fact, that you may already know, but just need a kick start in remembering.  Indeed, ancient wisdom told in a new way is the hallmark of effective spiritual books, and Peaceful Warrior achieves this goal. For Millman, as the months pass under Socrates’ tutelage, his mind clears to a crystalline state where he can see a reality that was always there, but hidden under ego, fear, and perception.

And that is a great lesson for all of us.  If we have even one iota of the discipline of the sages we so admire, perhaps we can reach a point where we, too, can get past the illusion of living, and get down to the business of life.  Once there is an understanding that the world is so much more than we perceive, and that the inner world is more vast than our daily, limited experience, we can confront our true selves on a level that can bring happiness.

Lasting happiness.

Enter the world of spiritual books.  Even if it is from 1980, my guess is that not too much has changed…although, perhaps, you may change.

-josh