false 3329064 4 Kathleen Norris’'s masterpiece: a personal and moving memoir that resurrects the ancient term <I>acedia</I>, or soul-weariness, and brilliantly explores its relevancy to the modern individual and culture. Kathleen Norris had written several much loved books, yet she couldn’'t drag herself out of bed in the morning, couldn'’t summon the energy for daily tasks. Even as she struggled, Norris recognized her familiar battle with <i>acedia</i>. She had discovered the word in an early Church text when she was in her thirties. Having endured times of deep soul-weariness since she was a teenager, she immediately recognized that this passage described her affliction: sinking into a state of being unable to care. Fascinated by this “noonday demon,” so familiar to those in the early and medieval Church, Norris read intensively and knew she must restore this forgotten but utterly relevant and important concept to the modern world’s vernacular. Like Norris’'s bestselling <I>The Cloister Walk</I>, <I>Acedia & me</I> is part memoir and part meditation. As in her bestselling <I>Amazing Grace</I>, here Norris explicates and demystifies a spiritual concept, exploring <i>acedia</i> through the geography of her life as a writer; her marriage and the challenges of commitment in the midst of grave illness; and her keen interest in the monastic tradition. Unlike her earlier books, this one features a poignant narrative throughout of Norris'’s and her husband’'s bouts with acedia and its clinical cousin, depression. Moreover, her analysis of acedia reveals its burden not just on individuals but on whole societies— and that the “restless boredom, frantic escapism, commitment phobia, and enervating despair that we struggle with today are the ancient demon of acedia in modern dress.” An examination of acedia in the light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality, the healing powers of religious practice, and Norris’s own experience, <I>Acedia & me</I> is both intimate and historically sweeping, brimming with exasperation and reverence, sometimes funny, often provocative, and always important. 3367056 16 9 2008 Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life total:252|5:59|4:96|3:60|2:30|1:7| 252 926 568 92 3 3 false false Tue Jan 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Dec 26 14:05:24 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 06 09:48:14 -0800 2009 Acedia is to spiritual health what depression is to mental health. Where depression is fought with therapy and medication, fighting acedia is a matter of...more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Mar 02 15:17:59 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 15:36:28 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Nov 19 05:54:43 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 19 06:22:54 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Nov 05 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jan 26 10:28:39 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 10:28:39 -0800 2009
"David enjoyed a passage I had found in Louise Bogan's memoirs, in which she writes of seeing out the window of a psychiatric ward, a woman hanging clothes and of 'wishing that I, too, could . . . hang out clothes in a happy, normal way.' When she walked with other pa...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Sep 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 02 07:41:14 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 07:41:14 -0800 2009
"Acedia & Me" is ful...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 19 22:47:55 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 23:00:06 -0700 2009 "Dakota" both about her experiences as a frequent visitor to a monastic
community in North Dakota. I have enjoyed her thoughtful contemplative insights.
This book explores the theme of sp...more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Nov 17 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 11 08:15:23 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 21 16:33:19 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Mon Feb 02 20:37:47 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 20:53:56 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Jan 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 12:04:35 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 21 12:36:40 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jan 18 08:21:12 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 07:18:19 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Feb 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 15:32:14 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 14:13:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Feb 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 05:54:09 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 27 21:37:10 -0800 2009
The not so great: as she admits early on in the book, this is a subject that she wanted to write about for a very long time, and it sort of shows. It's sort of a pulling together of disparate elements from her life interspersed and not that well blended with meditation o...more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jun 10 05:31:45 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 10 05:40:05 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Jan 31 02:37:34 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 31 02:40:35 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Dec 29 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 23 14:49:42 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 29 21:18:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 08:09:30 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 02 08:13:32 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jan 02 08:12:36 -0800 2009 Sun Dec 28 07:22:18 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 02 08:12:36 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jul 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 01:07:50 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 11 01:12:17 -0700 2009
The sust...more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri May 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jan 01 09:13:09 -0800 2009 Sat May 16 04:16:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Feb 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 30 15:03:49 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 10 09:38:50 -0800 2009 more...]]>