113. Grace and Grit
I write this within an hour of finishing reading the book Grace and Grit—Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya Killam Wilber by Ken Wilber. I found this book to be profound and what I’ve learned from it may take days or months or even years to clearly understand. In fact, what I’m writing now are some of my impressions from the couple of weeks it took me to read the book. So this is not so much what I’ve learned from the book—you’ll get that as I continue to absorb what I’ve read.
When I first read (somewhere) about this book, I recognized Ken Wilber’s name. It turned out that years ago I had read his book, No Boundary). And he writes as the Ken Wilber who wrote No Boundary would write, while at the same time writing as a man who met, married, and lived with the woman he truly loved. He himself says in the opening note to the reader that there are two books here—one a book of his deep philosophy, and one a book of what happened when this woman discovered she had breast cancer. He suggested that you could read them separately by constantly skipping forward, or you could read it straight through. I chose to read it straight through.
Some of my developing views of religion, of God, of my beliefs are expressed in this book. There are details about religion or the Bible that I find I don’t have to believe in because I can touch the mystery and that is enough. It was wonderful for me in reading this book to recognize that occasionally there comes along for two people a deep love that can go through trials and difficulties and still come out lasting and abiding. And this book confirmed my conviction that past death, we go on. I didn’t doubt it but the experiences of these two people add to my belief.
You can tell that I’m recommending this book. I have already ordered my own copy for a second reading. Chances are I will refer back a number of more times to Grace and Grit by Ken Wilber.
