Skip to main content

On the Kindle

At the beginning of each year I try and select a couple of hot books from the year before as selected at the end of the year by Amazon Editors. I do this to keep in touch with what others are reading. It also exposes me to issues that I would not naturally read about. There is nothing better than picking up a book and discovering it is a gem!
   
I have just finished reading  one of the top Amazon Singles from 2014. I never knew what an Amazon Single was until I picked up the book Perseverance by Kristin Peck . It is a very short memoir / personal essay by Kristin Peck which chronicles her emotionally charged struggles with infertility and persevered through to a happier ending. 

Two quotes from the book struck me, and perhaps highlights the double edge of the book. The first quote expresses a common human struggle :
We did our best to try to focus on anything other than our fertility problems as we took the twelve- hour flight to Maui. But your problems manage to travel with you, even when they are not invited. Their tickets are free. We went sightseeing, sat at the beach, and played hours of tennis each day, but the feeling of something hanging over us was impossible to avoid. It was with us on the beach, on the tennis court, and in our bed.
What Peck is talking about is the ancient inescapability of suffering. When you are going through suffering it rearranges your world in such a way that nothing else seems to matter. That problem becomes the new reality. It is this aspect of suffering that makes suffering always a lonely enterprise. It is just you and that form of pain. But its more than loneliness, as Peck flags up is enslavement that accompanies it. For that period of suffering we become prisoners of the situation. Totally helpless.

As an insight into the human condition that quote is very helpful. Indeed, the book as a whole is opens a window for us to gaze at how people seek to fulfil their needs in their lives, particularly the lengths they are willing to go. However, any would be reader of this short memoir must keep in mind the second quote very early on in the book:
I write this story down both so that I do not forget its lessons, laughter, and tears, but also because I hope that others who are suffering through similar circumstances will realize they are not alone and that there is no single right way to form a family— only the right way for them
As I read through the book I was expecting that some debate would emerge on the difficult moral questions surrounding the potential solutions, particularly in relations to surrogacy, but nothing happened. Indeed, there was no deep introspection on whether her constant pursuit of motherhood suggests perhaps an unhealthy obsession that may not bode well for the future. In short, one woman's perseverance may be another woman's unhealthy obsession. How do we know which is which?

 Unfortunately  we never get an answer to that question.. Instead what we get is blanket support for moral relativism encapsulated in the statement "there is no single right way to form a family— only the right way for them". That is actually very odd thing for Peck to say because later on she rejects adopting another woman's baby because the mother of the baby is a drug addict. Evidently, Peck does not think that is the right way to raise a family. Always moral relativists are never consistently relativistic, how else would they cross a road?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I am what I am by Gloria Gaynor

Beverly Knight closed the opening ceremony of the Paralympics with what has been dubbed the signature tune of the Paralympics. I had no idea Ms Knight is still in the singing business. And clearly going by the raving reviews she will continue to be around. One media source says her performance was so electric that "there wasn’t a dry eye to be seen as she sang the lyrics to the song and people even watching at home felt the passion in her words" . The song was Gloria Gaynor's I am what I am . Clearly not written by Gloria Gaynor but certainly musically owned and popularized by her. It opens triumphantly: I am what I am / I am my own special creation / So come take a look / Give me the hook or the ovation / It's my world that I want to have a little pride in / My world and it's not a place I have to hide in / Life's not worth a damn till you can say I am what I am The words “I am what I am” echo over ten times in the song. A bold declaration that she

The Shame of Worldly Joy

Only a Christian can be joyful and wise at the same time, because all other people either rejoice about things that they should be ashamed of (Philippians 3:19) or things that will disappear. A Christian is not ashamed of his joy, because he is not joyful about something shameful. That is why the Apostle Paul in [2 Corinthians 1:12] defends his joy. He says, I don’t care if everyone knows what makes me happy, because it is the ‘testimony of my conscience.’ He means, let other people can be happy about base pleasures that they are afraid to admit; let other people rejoice in riches, fame, or popularity; they can be happy about whatever they want, but my joy is different. ‘I rejoice because of my conscience.’ A Christian has a happiness that he can stand by and prove. No one else can do that. They will feel embarrassed and guilty if their happiness is found in something that is outside of themselves. They cannot say, ‘this is what makes me happy’. But a Christian has the approval of his

Preaching to the Conscience

Preaching to the conscience means something concrete. It means explaining the listeners’  obligations to God, their failure to meet those obligations, their impotence to make up for that failure, the eternal consequences of that failure, and God’s astounding grace offered to all who will humble themselves, repent, and believe the good news.  In other words, preaching to the conscience is provocative. It seeks to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed…. The great obstacle to this kind of preaching is when  the conscience is awakened, people react. The humble repent, rejoice, and enter God’s kingdom. The proud become angry: “Who are you to tell me I am a sinner?” or “This is not the God I learned about in Sunday school.”  Men dominated by the fear of man will not preach to the conscience. If you’re seeking a reward from men as you preach the gospel, you may get it, but that’s all—you won’t get anything from God.  The world needs pastors who fear God, love sinners, and under