Kirjahaku

Myth and Mortality: Testing the Stories, by Harry Willson, relates the author's field of expertise, that is, mythology, to the field of Death and Dying. Years of counseling the sick and dying, and years of searching with students for answers to life's big questions, have helped him with this task. Informed by personal experience and scholarly study, Willson challenges readers to examine the ideas and beliefs they may have accepted by default, and to make a conscious choice to replace all that breed guilt, hatred and fear with those that bring joy, compassion, and enthusiasm for life. He suggests that fear or denial of death is the result of our unwillingness to set aside ego. The actual work of preparing this book was triggered by the way Willson's parents died: his mother suddenly and easily, doing her self-appointed task which was caring for her ailing husband, and his father slowly and miserably, not believing in the end what he had so assiduously taught others all his life. "His mythology let him down," Willson says. The first twenty-six pages of the book tell that dramatic story -- "Two Deaths One Summer."Then follow essays entitled, "The Denial of Death," "Our Aging Population," and "We Need a Mythology. The last one introduces the main body of the book, which works through thirty-two different beliefs or metaphors dealing with death, and gives frank evaluations of how helpful they may be for persons confronting death. They are arranged according to the source of the myths under analysis.Willson deals first with Stories from Infantile Wishing. Then he proceeds to stories from Contemporary Media, from Socio-Political Movements and from Practical Observation. His most striking innovation is the distinction between Stories from Religion, which are designed to preserve Ego, and Stories from Philosophy, which enable us to transcend Ego.The book ends with an essay, "Whose Task Is This?" in which the author challenges each reader to be in some way ready to be responsible for his or her own departure. Ego is the problem.

Thinking Aloud Allowed Thinking about God went into a black hole in the '60s with "God Is Dead." Fundamentalism doesn't count, because there's no thinking there. Here's a book that goes all the way into that black hole and comes out the far end -- into liberation. This challenge is for persons who can read and like to think, and can still sense wonder. The fresh air is wonderful A study in candor, a philosophical broadside of profound importance, a guide to personal liberation, an invitation to wonder - a book that links truth-seekers and truth-tellers. "Freedom From God" is the product of a lifetime of thinking and reading. For eight years Willson was a card-carrying "Master of Divinity," serving as missionary/pastor in New Mexico. Then he left the church in sorrow and anger over its failure to speak out against the Vietnam War. He taught high school for ten years, then quit teaching "to write," and entered what he came to call "the real world," thinking all the while. Eventually Willson decided that the word "God" was too contaminated to be useful, but found he experienced wonder, more than ever.