When I read this passage from Marilynne Robinson’s new book, I immediately recalled Robert Solomon’s “Joy of Philosophy” (which I reviewed and reflected on here)
There is a tendency, considered highly rational, to reason from a narrow set of interests, say survival and procreation, which are supposed to govern our lives, and then to treat everything that does not fit this model as anomalous clutter, extraneous to what we are and probably best done without. But all we really know about what we are is what we do. There is a tendency to fit a tight and awkward carapace of definition over humankind, and to try to trim the living creature to fit the dead shell. The advice I give my students is the same advice I give myself—forget definition, forget assumption, watch. We inhabit, we are part of, a reality for which explanation is much too poor and small. No physicist would dispute this, though he or she might be less ready than I am to have recourse to the old language and call reality miraculous
I do think reducing a human being, in whatever way, takes us into acting at a subhuman level. It’s this reduction of the miraculous, amazing, special individual to a data set of measurable parameters which lies at the core of a lot of our problems these days. (This is why I argue for a SEA CHANGE in our values).
Robert Solomon’s book is subtitled “Thinking Thin versus the Passionate Life” and in that, he nails it.
A data led, reduced, materialism is a poor, thin, inadequate way to live. What I argue for is a rich, passionate life of wonder and amazement – a miraculous life.
Heroes Not Zombies 
Hi Bob
Really appreciate your pointers to such a wide range of books and, as a fellow homeopath, to your thoughts on how things you’ve read apply to the therapeutic encounter. Your reference to Robert Solomon took me also to Sam Keen’s website and this interesting essay: http://samkeen.com/essays/the-courageous-imagination-and-the-future-of-therapy/
I read your original post reviewing the Joy of Philosophy and am curious as to whether you went on to blog about love?
Warm wishes, Linda
Linda, thanks for bringing the Sam Keen article along–his learning to fly book about his metamorphosis into an ageing trapeze artist is a good story on living a passionate life …..http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Fly-Reflections-Trust-Letting/dp/0767901770
I really liked this quote from your link …and also his comment on the emphasis on the individual devoid of community …….
‘No, Only a person can heal a person. In the dialogue of therapy–the talking cure– what you bring as a person, your concern, your compassion, your empathy, your willingness to be a member of a caring community… is the great elixir… The person of the therapist–not the techniques.
The creative leap that will bring wholeness to a client must take place first in the imagination of the therapist.’
A person I was asked to see was recommended to desist from engaging in activities that provoked his ‘pain’ by well meaning medical and psychological staff which resulted in him giving up music and spiralling into depression. I saw him performing and being himself which he is now doing after 2 failed back operations. Most people would ask what the technique or approach is but i think its summed up in the quote above.
There is very little if any radical comment by medical staff on the real issues that seem to drive distress in so many cases –notable exceptions being Des Spence and the brilliant Iona Heath in the BMJ but there are probably more.
I went to a great talk by Thomas Moore who described the process of living well as being counter cultural .Given the current cultural norms in medicine and the obsession with risk reduction and living as ‘safely’ as possible I agree with him!
ian
I just nominated you for a Kreativ Blogger Award. See details at http://www.bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com