h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/175/story_17594_1.html

Scott Peck died.
He was an inspiration to me and many in the fields he dealt with.

His longest selling best seller; The Road Less Traveled - 13 years on the best seller list.

His famous starting line.....
Life is difficult.
Yes indeed it is!

He talked about the things I wanted to in a way I did not know how to express or combine. He helped me make changes and sort out some things I desperately wanted to ponder with another human.
Thank you Scott Peck!

may he long keep inspiring you, Abbi

I never heard of him, than again I am European...

The Road Less Travelled came as a revelation to me, and allowed me to move on from toxic patterns.
Thank you indeed!

Nice.
I am not surprised you are among those affected by his work

Dear abbi,

Someone else you have introduced me to. I shall have to try and get hold of his book.

How are you keeping my dear? We have not been in contact much lately but I nevertheless often think of you.

Much affection

Christiane
Also Ran1

Hello Christiane-
Also Ran1

Well now that you mention it I think you would really like this bookand perhaps more of his writings.

I always love seeing you.
I have not built up my previous stamina for posting. I read all of your posts and I never forget about you either! It saddens me to not be able to keep up but I'll keep working with what I have and hope for improvement.

I may have some lower back surgery in the next few months. It was put off in order for me to get a second opinion and try the latest miracle drug. I have had some of my worst experiences with new experimental medications so I am guarding any enthusiam but will try it first. If it comes to another operation I'll need lots of luck to be better off afterwards. I'll be sure to post when and if that takes place.

Did you ever write Sal about passing our email addresses through her?
I find it easier to communicate that way.
Of course I understand if you do not , many do not, to each his own

Take care of yourself and know you have a friend in me.

JEllen here. Sorry you may have to have surgery hon!

I've been painting tonight. Painting, when it goes well, always puts me in a good mood.

Hello abbi and everyone else!

Abbi I hope things go well with the lower back surgery -if indeed it happens! Maybe it will turn out to not be necessary. Maybe that drug works after all! I'm just hoping and praying for the best!

I've read and appreciated some of Scott Peck's work. I think I'm going to go to the library and read some of his stuff again! I don't completely agree with him about everything, but he writes a lot of things that are food for thought. Sorry about his death ... he wasn't that old! But I think his soul will be OK.

Hi everyone. I read The Road Less Travelled years ago and have forgotten the content except that it made sense to me when not much else did. I shall have to find my copy and re-read.
Sorry to hear you may be facing back surgery. Would the surgery improve your quality of life? I do hope you are feeling much better soon. Meg

Hi Meg
I liked your post - what you learned today. I will get back to it, if not tonight then tomorrow. I want to say now that I am so sorry about your having been burned


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The first time I read The Road Less Traveled I was in my agnostic period having just come from a short lived few years as an atheist.
(don't want to debate the meanings)

The first half could be useful to all confused or angry people even if you have to skip a line or two about God. Practical how to sort out life hints and hard truths. The second half went deeply into the spirit and God. I dropped it there my first time.

The second time I read the whole thing because so many mysterious things and timings had passed I began to think there was more to it and I could not loose by investigating. It made so many things come together like a jigsaw. It made more sense each time I read it. I could see how it had affected my life in a positive way.

I loved it by the third time, a decade of time had passed by then.
The last time (?)it was good company and a good reminder of many things I was still working on. I was reading "When Bad Things Happen to Good People" - another classic good book for the spiritually depressed by God. It's a question all believers or investigators ask.

I mentioned his first line in the Road because he was not a light weight on himself or the world. "Life is Difficult"

He studied religion and psychiatry and believed both had done some harm in the wrong hands. Wrong when helpers want power over others. He explained eleganty and simply the difference.

Peck was never shy about the dark side and insisted it existed in everyday life and that was the most insisious. He thought personal responsibility was the key no matter your world views.

He also attempted to define love and I have never found a better definition. I have read about love in poetry but never defined so well for something so largely indescribable.
It is useful for taking responsibility for not having, wanting or giving love.

He said something to the effect that love is the willingness to extend oneself for the growth of self or others. He was big on accepting life is hard but it can be beautiful. It is bittersweet, take it all in to get the most.

"
People of the Lie" This book had a great effect on me.
He wrote about everyday life in some evil families. Such revealing history on a few people that could be seen as evil or wrongly think of themselves as evil.

He includes people that are "normal" or acceptable but with no integrity or liveliness of human spirit. I have thought of the phrase the walking dead since then ,though I do not recall if he used that phrase.

He talks about integrity. Not in a preachy way -- nothing about hell or damnation from a Religion view. I found it fascinating. It was about a world of shades of gray rather than possible sick strict rules pf black and white thoughts and momentum's.

Most people are not evil but spiritually lazy which can cause a great deal of evil to persist.I do not necessarily mean anything about Religion (though also fits) but the human spirit. The spirit that weeps at the sight of a newborn and without thought saves a life at the risk of their own.

I had said to my therapists before picking up the book RLT I'm going through a period of seeing how I am spiritualy lazy. About this time I began identifying love as a verb rather than something to find or have.

In tears at your beautiful words and spirit