Peterson takes you on this long ride and slowly lays out his delicate thought processes. This book is definitely an intellectually fulfilling piece of work. Please don't get me wrong though, reading it is not easy. It is not meant to be.
He seems to favour the "follow-my-thoughts" approach in his book. Problem is, not everyone is capable of doing that. His understanding of psychology, neuroscience, sociology, mythology and religious studies are top-notch. This is true even in the academia, not to mention to average community.
It is virtually impossible to summarise his work as he likes going off at tangents and discusses other (important) topics while making his points. I won't try such impossible feat. Instead, I am going to share with you the part of the book I find the most beautiful.
This is extracted from the last chapter of the book - RULE 12: PET A CAT WHEN YOU ENCOUNTER ONE ON THE STREET. And here is my interpretation.
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Life is suffering. This is undeniable. It is hard to find a person who does not suffer tremendously in at least one spectrum of their lives (i.e. health, family, relationships, friendships, career, etc.) at any one time.
Life is limited. Walk into a hospital and you will find that really, really hard to defend against. Yet limitations are interwoven with Being itself. To be = to be limited.
"If you are already everything, everywhere, always, there is nowhere to go and nothing to be. No limitation, no story. No story, no Being."
This helps me to deal with the fragility of Life.
When you meet a cat on the street, many things can happen. If you bend down, and call the cat over, the chances are it will just run away. Sometimes, it will ignore you, cat-style. But sometimes, just sometimes, it will come over and push its head against your hand, and you get to pet it tenderly.
"If you pay attention, even on a bad day, you may be fortunate enough to be confronted with small opportunities of just that sort. Maybe you will see a little girl dancing on the street because she is all dressed up in a ballet costume. Maybe you will have a particularly good cup of coffee in a cafe that cares about their customers. Maybe that distracts you or reminds you that you can laugh a the absurdity of existence."
"And maybe when you are going for a walk and your head is spinning a cat will show up and if you pay attention to it, then you will get a reminder for just fifteen seconds that the wonder of Being might make up for ineradicable suffering that accompanies it."
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For this, the two-month on-and-off reading is justified. And I am pleased.
Give me a like if you like what you are reading here. I have been busy working on various projects so you might be seeing more sharing from me in the next few months.
For now.
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