Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life

Rating:
Summary: Hearing a call...
Review: Hearing a call is a very difficult discernment process. Sometimes the call is clear, but the path is not. Sometimes the path is clear, but the desire is not. Gregg Levoy has done an exceptional job at being an in-print spiritual director for those seeking an entrance into the process of finding a true calling and a more authentic life.

What is right for me? and Where am I willing to be led? are the two essential questions -- Discernment requires that we ask these two questions continually and devotedly.

As Levoy says, 'people won't pursue their callings until the fear of doing so is finally exceeded by the pain of not doing so.' I have found this to be very true. It took a very long time to discern my call to the priesthood, and yet more time to decide that it is something I must do at all costs (and the costs have been heavy). Yet, I cannot imagine myself doing anything differently and being in any way fulfilled.

'The truest calls seem not only to keep coming back but also to make their way to us through many channels.'

Levoy integrates so much material here, from spiritual masters and the scriptural traditions of many religious faiths to modern psychology and artistic/cultural experts.

Perhaps the greatest chapter for me was that on 'Finding Clarity', in which Levoy says that 'there is such a thing as thinking too much about a calling.' As Emerson said, sometimes it is best to let the bird sing without trying to decipher the song. 'A calling is ultimately mysterious, and the process of discernment is always a bit of a guessing game.'

Levoy's guidance, in cooperation with others in my community, helped me to see a change of mindset, a change of events, a change of personalities were all converging to tell me something that I had closed my mind to, or, more accurately, had closed my heart to. So, I began to pray, even if only subconsciously, and the path began to materialise before my eyes.

'When I pray, coincidences start to happen. When I don't pray, they don't happen.' - William Temple

It also taught me that I couldn't wait for 'someday' -- how we spend our days is how we spend our lives, according to the apt observation of Annie Dillard.

And finally, it made me face what it was to keep saying no. There is a cost, and eventually God will get you anyway -- Jonah (remember Jonah and the great fish?) said no, but eventually had follow his call anyway. I learned that one source of my fear: 'One of the frightening prospects of saying yes to a calling is that you may find out who really supports you and who doesn't.'

Figuring out how to bring my call into being was the final task, and Levoy provided wisdom here as well. 'You cannot cross a chasm in two small jumps', he quoted Lloyd-George as saying; I was forced to create a response to my call, one that did not exist before.

Thus, not too long after discovering this book, I became Father Kurt, and I owe much to this book for that. But please, don't assume that it will tempt or trap you into a ministerial role--it is an excellent guide for discernment, and discernment is one of the most personal tasks for any human being. Prepare to be enlightened.

Rating:
Summary: Best book on spirituality I've read in 5 years, maybe ever.
Review: I'm not going to say much because it would take away from the time you should spend reading this book. If you are open to any level of insight into your own life, and you are if you are reading this review, this book will have something worthwhile to say to you. My thanks to Mr. Levoy for a huge research job and for passing on an enormous labor of love from which any and all can benefit.

Rating:
Summary: Transcendentalizing dribble
Review: I'm somewhat ambivalent about this book; if it were possible to give two ratings, I'd give it a four and a one. The four for the fundamental idea of the vital importance of being aware, of keeping your eyes, ears, and soul open; of not ignoring anything, of gathering your insights, of giving yourself time, of being a full-time listener. All of this doesn't come naturally to us; at best our life experience forces the realization of these things--and oftentimes we still manage to ignore it. On that level this book is thought provoking, and I'd give it a solid four were it not for the following:

Contrary to what some reviewers here say, the book is NOT well written: it is mind-numbingly wordy, imprecise, preachy, vapidly transcendentalizing, politically correct, high-falutin and vague, affectatious (it's not a "singer", it's "vocal artist"; it's not a historian, but a "mythologist", not a "writer", but "storyteller", etc.)

There's this typical combination of artificial, purposely inflated vocabulary ("purgation", "liminal", oh man, I needed to look this one up in the dictionary,) with a ton of--yes, plain and dumb--usage errors: p. 180 "in this deep strata" ("strata" is plural), p 218, "...without an advanced degree; voluntarism counts for little on a resume"--surely, "volunteerism" was meant here. Page 228, "in the Afghani tongue, the verb..."--there's no such thing as "the Afghani tongue"; p. 242, "he often got sidetracked by the arguments of practicality", where something like "practical matters" is actually meant; p.243 "which fits neatly into a run-on sentence"--related to the phrase that is not a run-on sentence by any means; p. 323, "Every time we honor a calling, we also ameliorate our fear of what lies hidden in us..."--yet, to ameliorate means to improve, not lessen, or obviate, or palliate, or diminish, or lighten; you can't "improve" your fears (unless you're trying to frighten yourself, of course.) Page 142, "Not all myths follow this structure to the letter of the law". The idiom is either "to the letter" or "letter of the law", but not both jumbled together.

That's just a sampling.

The author does not like to say what he wants to say in his own words, sharply and concisely: he prefers to endlessly quote someone else: there's half a dozen quotations on every page--"as this guy says", "as that girl testifies", "as this genleman puts it", "what renown therapist Joe Blow describes as", and so on and so forth; this gives the book a distinct taste of quotation dictionary. As a result what he's intending to say comes out ten-times-the-volume, half-irrelevant and distracting--thus frustrating the reader anticipating a (hopefully, sharp) expression of the author's original thought. Perhaps this is simply a trick, an insidious new way of padding books? Whatever the case may be, the book is unenjoyable, hard to read (and even to parse at times.)

I've mentioned just a few crudest, most jarring flaws, but the overall writing is simply impossible, though I'm no editor and don't want to get into the structure, paragraphs, and sentences. This great gury (and a professional writer!) can't write--and his editor didn't want to edit either; there are typos too ("heiroglyph", "reknowned"), it's not even proofread.

The overall book, in intent and style, seems to be inspired by Nachmanovitch's Free Play (which is a wonderful book; please read it before or even instead of this one: it's refreshingly sharp AND small) and something like Csikzhentmihaly's Creativity; Callings is a knockoff, and not a well-made one. Another thing I've noticed is that the writing is very uneven throughout the book: it feels like different parts of it were written at different times and even by different people. To be fair, most of the last third of the book feels better than the rest (maybe because it stands out against the dismal background?)

The main problem with the above, as I see it, is this: the idea of being aware is a very important one--for the young (youth being a relative notion; it's more about maturity of course than age.) But I could espy this message in this book only because I have already discovered it on my own; it was not learning, but recognition of the already known for me. So, while I'm glad to agree on fundamentals with the author, strictly speaking, people like me are not the target audience. Otoh, someone who objectively stands to benefit from a book like that--a young reader, most likely--will probably be repulsed by the annoyingly inferior writing and simply refuse to read the book. And, I regret to say, be the better for it.

Go read Nachmanovitch's Free Play instead (or anything by Csikzhentmihaly.) Unlike Gregg Levoy, these two aren't men of letters by profession, but they did a much better thinking, articulating, and writing job somehow.

(Note: Page numbers cited in this review are from the hardback edition of the book.)

Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written, but tends toward repetitive
Review: Levoy is a talented, beautiful writer and his concept of "callings" is a powerful way to make us all think about how to make our lives meaningful, and how to listen to that inner voice that our society is so good at training us to tune out.

However, the concept wears thin after about 100 pages. It gets repetitive. By the end of the book I felt like I feel after I've eaten too much chocolate. A little less would have been just as good.

Some of his examples get pretty new-agey, which is a shame since I think you can find your inner voice, listen and respond to your callings without having to go meditate in some desert or adopt a belief system that seems a bit "out there." His message is compelling enough that I'd hate to see it lost on people who aren't as inclined as he is toward the ethereal.

Still, compelling food for thought and a good way to kick yourself in the pants if you're feeling "stuck" and knowing there most be more to life than this.

Rating:
Summary: A guidebook on becoming your own guide
Review: Read this. "Callings" clearly gives you the tools, motivation, and resources to initiate real improvements in your career and personal life. It's not a preachy, "HOW TO" thing, but rather an enlightening journey through a great deal of intelligently compiled information from a superior resevoir of sources.

Other career review books tend to be guides to wealthy socialites with resources and risk tolerance to spare. Levoy's book appeals to a more dynamic audience, from College grads to working stiffs to semi-retired baby boomers in search for something new. I have to say that it's the only career book of its kind that really inspires one to seek purpose in our worklives (partially a result of his creative writing flair). Thank you Gregg.

Rating:
Summary: This book is a jewel
Review: This book fascinates and motivates. It's well-written, and it's not just "talk theory." Levoy has lived his message. He reinforces his points with one amazing story after another from his own and others' experiences. This is one of my favorite books of all time, and over the years, I've read it, or parts of it, many, many times. My only problem is the set-up. What were his editors thinking? Sometimes I've wanted to go back and re-read a favorite story -- but have had trouble finding it because there isn't an index, and the table of contents doesn't lay out the topics in such a way that I can go back and find things later. Hence, my copy is overflowing with sticky notes so that I can go back and find my favorite stories and topics. But blame the editors, not Levoy. Think of it as driving a little longer to get to a 5-star restaurant. This book is worth your time. It's truly the best source of inspiration and motivation I've ever read. Levoy is an incredible and fluid writer. (...) I love this book, give it to friends, and recommend it as often as I can.

Rating:
Summary: Open any page for insight, wisdom, wit
Review: This book is almost too good. It is so well written, so thorough, and so full of insight and wisdom from the author's own very believable and compelling anecdotes, as well as from literature and philosophy, that it exhausts every facet of 'callings.' You can open the book anywhere--don't have to read the pages in order--to find passages that speak to you. But in the end the message, to me, is fairly simple: take risks; don't live your life according to another's expectations or standards; be true to your values and talents; expect miracles yet don't be surprised if the full realization of a calling takes time. In other words, it's a wonderful source for living, but don't assume that it will manifest your calling for you. And don't confuse a wishful or deluded fantasy for a calling--not always easy to discern. The book is in some ways the story of the author's relationship to his own calling, writing, which has taken him on a journey leading to this very highly regarded book. Other people/characters in the book who have found their callings have done so because...better if you read their stories.

Rating:
Summary: Difficult but Rewarding Book
Review: This book is not for everyone. It is for people in a period of trouble or unease in their life. If you are a happy, content person- don't read it- spend your time in your own best way possible. I had a hard time getting through this book. I read 2-4 pages a day at the most. It is not that the material is hard, it is that it caused me to reflect so much that I had to spend time digesting all the stuff that it brought back to my mind.
Yes it is somewhat repetitive and relies on a lot of quotes- but- big deal? It is not meant to be an authoritative work of discourse on some academic matter. It is meant to help people in distress.
It is not a solution to all problems. But I found it helpful to help point me in a more productive way. It may or may not help others. But I do recommend at least looking at this book.

Rating:
Summary: This book is a jewel
Review: This book isn't about simple answers to complex problems. It does, however, do a good job of helping to lay the ground work for finding your calling in life. Mr. Levoy makes liberal use of examples and stories from people he knows and this serves to make the material easier to work through. It helps to see that people with huge challenges have been able to meet them head on and emerge victorious. The book also helped me to realize that no matter how deep the rut you are in, it's never too late to make changes and move forward.

Rating:
Summary: An Inspiration
Review: While I had trouble getting involved in the content of the book at first, once I was in, I was hooked. I enjoyed Levoy's writing style and the examples he gave illustrated his points beautifully. I purchased the book because I'm considering a career change and happened to stumble across the book - I would recommend it to anyone who is also considering a career change! The fact that Mr. Levoy speaks from experience with eloquence and compassion makes it very easy to consider his guidance worthwhile!