What recent book or film have you been affected by?

Books that have affected me, hmmm. Note I didn’t say films. I don’t watch many, nor TV. Occasional stuff we record, but who’s got time?

I’m a history buff. I have all kinds of it at my fingertips from the writings of the founding fathers to McCarthyism; to today’s disputes about whether or not there is a God. My most recent and memorable read was When the Mississippi Ran Backwards. It’s a fascinating weaving of several themes that seemed to all apex at the earthquakes in the New Madrid fault line in the central US. Not only is it good history telling, it’s a good primer on earthquakes, or informative ion that regard. And it got me to thinking about preparedness. Incidentally, our fire district just completed our first earthquake response drill; to see what problems we might run into and develop a plan to fix them. It affects me because I live on the West coast, which is the Pacific Rim fault line, and two fault lines run right through our island, which could effectively cut us off from the only hospital on the island. Related to that, I am in the Fire Officer Academy, which will equip me to create order from the chaos of such a disaster, that could potentially wipe out the transportation, electric, water, and communications infrastructures. That means I need to help establish a mass triage and medical response with potentially impassable roads, no water to fight fires, and the need for evacuations.

So let’s move onto worldview. Mine is Buddhist. And it’s interesting that though I’m a bookworm, I end up in a school that is noted for it’s passing of the lineage through verbal face-to-face teaching. Which is of course my karmic thread coming into play. I’m in the midst of The Tibetan Book Of The Dead, and it’s the version that just came out by Penguin. On top of seeing my school’s leader just recently, this book has had a profound impact on my meditation practice, and my relationship to the inevitable. No, not taxes, and not death either. Just something we call death, but really isn’t. Being the expansive subject it is, I will simply say that this book has affected me.

The other book that has been important to me of late is Eckhart Tolle’s book, The New Earth. It is one of the best books I have read, and re-read, and now going on the third time through. The only other books I read more are the texts related to my meditation practice. I will say this about the book: if you are at all involved or wanting an evolution of consciousness in your life, read this book.

So what of fiction you ask? Well, I read some, and lately my author of choice is Richard Russo. I loved Risk Pool. He is poignant and humorous, and anything that describes the human condition and can make me laugh is worth my time. I read some science fiction/fantasy (still waiting for installment 5 of Ice And Fire by George RR Martin, and part 3 of the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini) and then there’s non-fiction to boot!

Bill Bryson (anything), William Greider (Who Will Tell The People), Kevin Phillips (anything), and Susan Jacoby (Freethinkers) are favorite non-fiction writers. I’ve steered away from political stuff lately because a lot of ego wrangling is all that politics is, and the upshot of ego wrangling will always be people suffering. So I decided to be the change I want to see and focus on intention at a local level, where much good is happening, rather than the political divisive national scene the US currently demonstrates.

And of course this list will change. I’m starting on a new self education program so in due time those texts I have assembled will be those that will affect me, as it should be. They will in-form me, some more so than others. So next time the question comes around, it will be interesting to see what changes have transpired in the Gaia Community!