Review: My Grandfather's Blessings by Rachel Naomi Remen

  from Dan Salerno on January 30, 2019
 
A wonderful blend of story-telling and practical wisdom, gleaned from living
 
I became acquainted with Rachel Naomi Remen through her On Being interview (https://bit.ly/2TP5EpR). I was instantly fascinated with her take on the difference between healing and fixing.

During the interview, Krista Tippett, the host, mentioned one of Remen's books, My Grandfather's Blessings. So I picked it up.

In the beginning of her book, Remen writes about the relationship she had with her Grandfather. As a young girl, Remen had the opportunity to hang out with him almost daily. And for a few hours, in between the time school let out and her mother (a public health nurse), came home from work.

Remen captures the wisdom of her grandfather, who was an orthodox rabbi and a scholar of the Kabbalah. Remen's parents were both socialists and agnostics, so his perspective was decidedly different.

Remen has struggled with Chron's disease for over 65 years, and endured eight major surgeries. She is also an M.D. But her specialty is listening to and counseling patients with chronic and terminal illnesses. She is also the co-founder and medical director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program in Bolinas, CA.

While this may seem like a lengthy introduction to a book review, in Remen's case it's important. There are hundreds of thousands of self-help books out there. Remen's isn't one of them.

My Grandfather's Blessings is a wonderful blend of story-telling, practical wisdom gleaned from living and a look at the mystical connection between body and spirit.

"I've spent many years learning how to fix life, only to discover at the end of the day that life isn't broken. There is a hidden seed of greater wholeness in everyone and everything," she writes at one point. A few pages later she notes "I was stunned to find that many of the things most worth knowing are not written in books, or observed through scientific effort. They are known by people who have been to school but just as often known by people who have never been to school, by people who can read and by people who have never read a book in their lives. It came as a shock to discover that in order to live well you might need to learn to read life."

Remen gives us a lot to chew on. Her book is a like chocolate cheesecake, with chocolate frosting on top. Here's one last sliver of a slice, in hopes you'll want more!

"Science has cast a deep shadow over our ideas about life. We may even have allowed science to define life for us, but life is larger than science. Life is process, and process has Mystery woven into it. Things happen that science can't explain, important things that cannot be measured but can be observed, witnessed, known. These things are not replicable. They are impervious to even the best-designed research. All life has in it the dimension of the Unknown; it is a thing forever unfolding. It seems important to consider the possibility that science may have defined life too small. If we define life too small, we will define ourselves too small as well."