Tag books

Pico Iyer Leads Journey to Places Beyond and Within

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

Pico Iyer is a travel writer unlike any other. In The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, Iyer takes readers to cultures, even during times of unrest, in fascinating ways that will make you sometimes squirm with discomfort for his lifestyle on the road. The author of more than a dozen books and a well-known TED talks presenter, Iyer transports readers of The Half Known Life to North Korea, Sri Lanka, Iran, Ethiopia, Jerusalem, inner Australia, Nazareth, Kashmir, and Varanasi.

Iyer, who has known the Dalai Lama for three decades, explores how peoples around the world live and seek paradise. His conclusions evolve as he maintains an open mind, even during violent times.

He learns at every stop. Some of his observations:

  1. Paradise has to be accessible to all, so one religion or people cannot define it.
  2. We must all die, so we must live well.
  3. Does our search for paradise “aggravate our differences?”
  4. In North Korea, he seeks to find out “what a whole nation built around a secular faith might look like.”
  5. The places we avoid may be closer to us than the places we seek out.
  6. Paradise exists in the present. He says the Dalai Lama believes “the meaning of life lies in what we can do right now.”
  7. “The churning current of Varanasi threw everything and its opposite together, and declared it holy.”
  8. He quotes Thomas Merton, who explored the extremes of Sri Lanka. “The more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer.”

I was fortunate to have known Pico Iyer’s late father while I was a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara in the 1970s. I took three classes taught by Raghavan Iyer: a political philosophy course, anarchist thought, and one about the life and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Iyer was unlike any teacher I have known and his lectures drew standing ovations every single time. The hundreds of us who packed the lecture halls knew we were in the presence of a great thinker. He used no notes and spoke more eloquently than anyone I have ever heard.

But, like his son, Dr. Iyer eschewed pedestals. Both men wanted their words to resonate and enrich our lives. At UCSB, I often wished I could push the repeat button after Iyer’s classes. After I finished The Half Known Life, I returned to page one and read the book again.

A 50-State Journey to Rediscover American Democracy

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

Ryan Bernsten’s 50 States of Mind: A Journey to Rediscover American Democracy is not the book I expected.

It is advertised as a followup to Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville’s nine-month tour of America in 1831 that examined why democracy worked here. That trip resulted in the classic two-volume Democracy in America, required reading in political science programs across the United States.

Bernsten’s five-month tour to all 50 states is a lighter look than I expected, but weighs in with answers to serious questions about the direction of America. Are we hopelessly divided? Or are there common threads that bind us? How do Americans really feel?

Bernsten drives his Prius to large cities, small towns and places between. He listens, learns, and relates the stories and moods of Americans, from civic leaders to the homeless. Laughs and entertaining vignettes are included aplenty.

50 States is a story of hope, rooted in the author’s open-minded approach. A member of Hillary Clinton’s campaign staff in the 2016 presidential race, Bernsten hears a plethora of reasons voters were drawn to the Trump campaign. He wonders why more of us don’t listen to folks who have views different from ours.

The book is an adventure story and a report of his personal journey. Traveling on a tight budget, he stays with friends, relatives, and strangers. He couch surfs. A catalogue of his hosts would make interesting reading on its own. He is alone much of the way, but his passenger seat is taken for a while by a prospective love interest. Later, a former college roommate joins him, breaking up times that he admits sometimes turn lonely.

Bernsten studied creative writing at Northwestern University and Oxford University, where he earned a master’s degree. He has won awards as a playwright and is now senior managing editor at The Trevor Project, which works to end suicide among LGBTQ young people.

He admits he was burning out toward the end of his journey, but, as a reader, I wanted him to slow down and conduct more random interviews.

The trip and book were brilliant ideas that convinced Ryan Bernsten and this reader that there are reasons for hope for democracy in America.