The Road Less Travelled

This is the title of a book I am busy reading, by M. Scott Peck. It was a gift from my parents-in-law, and arrived in the last week. I am only on p23 so far, and already it has had profound impact into my life.

The book starts by stating that life is difficult, full of problems. But we define ourselves, and our children, by how we approach these problems. Do we spend the time solving them, or do we do our best to avoid them, hoping that they will just go away? Procrastinate, ignore them, forget them, pretend they do not exist. We take drugs to help us in the ignoring/forgetting process, we do whatever we can, except face them head on. In the words of Carl Jung, Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.

And that discipline is the basic set of tools we need to solve life's problems. The first one of four that Mr. Peck deals with is Delaying Gratification, and eventually makes the point that many of our problems stem from feelings of lack of self-worth, and an example case study shows how a perfectly competent, intelligent professional struggled in many areas of her life, just because of lack of knowledge of a few basic rules in life.

Fascinating reading. I will let you know later what I think of the rest of the book.