So Far From Home: Lost and Found In Our Brave New World, by Margaret Wheatly, is about an invitation to warrior ship. It describes how a person can do good work with dedication, energy, discipline and joy by consciously choosing a new role for himself or herself, that is the warriors for the human spirit. It contains maps of how a person ended up in a world that nobody wants, which is overtaken by greed, self-interest and oppressive power – the very opposite of what we worked so hard to create. These maps look deeply into the darkness of this time so that we can develop the insight we need to contribute in meaningful ways. Margaret Wheatly also provides maps about the future, how we can transform our grief, outrage, and frustration into the skills of insight and compassion, to serve this dark time with bravery, decency and gentleness. As warriors for the human spirit, we have to discover our right work; work that we know is ours to do no matter what. We engage wholeheartedly, embody values we cherish, let go of outcomes, and carefully attend to relationship. We shouldn’t focus on making a difference, but being that difference instead.
This book challenged me, which I rejected the central premise. The backdrop of the book talks about how the Earth is doomed and our work is largely fruitless. Society won’t get any better either. I felt weird hearing someone say that, because I’m usually optimistic about the world and how we can make a difference in the world. By letting go of hope and fear Wheatly tell us that we can become warriors for the human spirit, by doing good work without expectation for any kind of result. One of the central ideas in this book is the idea that we should focus on compassion rather than striving. The author believes that grief is a realistic reaction to the state of the world and gives examples of how to be a warrior for the human spirit, but it is pretty small. One example that got to me was working to not get angry when is cashier on...