Download or read book In Search of the Meaning of Life an Autobiography written by Mark Jones and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-04-26 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I had no idea of how my life would turn out after arriving in Seattle with Bruce following our bicycle adventure in June 1977 and it turned out that life opened up for me in ways I could have never thought possible. At the same time, after the adventurous initial ten months of mine in Seattle on my own, I couldn't have foreseen the dramatic changes that would occur in my life and sweep me away in ways I couldn't even believe at the time. All of the experiences I was going through during my time in Seattle were subconsciously making me more aware of the need to discover a greater theme of meaning and purpose for my life, for I still had no idea what I was to do in life, why I was born or what my future held. There had to be something greater than an endless series of adventures, but I really didn't have a clue at all as to what it was. At the time, I couldn't see further into my future than the next moment or two, leaving me no awareness of where I was headed and going in life. I certainly didn't see the changes to my life in Seattle that were just over the horizon at this point, or the dramatic events I'd be part of in the upcoming years...

Download or read book Meaning a Life written by Mary Oppen and published by David R. Godine Publisher. This book was released on 1978 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The wife of the American poet George Oppen tells of their experiences traveling throughout America and of their associations with the Communist Party.

Download or read book Fish Out of Water written by Eric Metaxas and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-02-02 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What Happens When One of America’s Most Admired Biographers Writes His Own Biography? For Eric Metaxas, the answer is Fish Out of Water: A Search for the Meaning of Life—a poetic and sometimes hilarious memoir of his early years, in which the Queens-born son of Greek and German immigrants struggles to make sense of a world in which he never quite seems to fit. Renowned for his biographies of William Wilberforce, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Martin Luther, Metaxas is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, the witty host of the acclaimed Socrates in the City conversation series, and a nationally syndicated radio personality. But here he reveals a personal story few have heard, taking us from his mostly happy childhood—and riotous triumphs at Yale—to the nightmare of drifting toward a dark abyss of meaninglessness from which he barely escapes. Along the way he introduces us to an unforgettable troupe of picaresque characters who join this quintessentially first-generation American boy in what is both bildungsroman and odyssey—and which underscores just how funny, serious, happy, sad, and ultimately meaningful life can be.

Download or read book In Search of the Meaning of Life an Autobiography Book Three The Great Adventure Part One written by Mark D. Jones and published by In Search of the Meaning of Li. This book was released on 2019-02-26 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of going on adventures captured my imagination ever since the sixth grade when my friend Dan first introduced me to J.R.R. Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy set in the fictional world of Middle-earth. I dreamed of going off on an adventure like Bilbo and Frodo Baggins through the Shire and beyond, but how does one take an adventure in the here-and-now of the real world? I didn't know how it might be possible, but understood it was up to me to figure out a way to turn my dreams into my reality. Adventure was never an offered class in my curriculum or coursework in school while growing up, but I was convinced there must be a way to go on great adventures in life. I figured that I'd just have to make it up on my own along the way - and when I wasn't accepted into the College of Veterinary Medicine at Michigan State University during Winter Term 1976, I realized this was my opportunity to follow my dreams and leave MSU. I finally settled on the idea of a great bicycle adventure around the United States and despite being broke, I set out to plan how to accomplish such a journey. This is the story of Part One of 'The Great Adventure' from southwest of Flint, MI, to our arrival at my aunt and uncle's house in Tallahassee, Florida - a journey around the U.S. in 1976-1977 of 8,111 miles that eventually finished in Seattle, WA. I left Michigan State University following Winter Term 1976 after not being accepted into the College of Veterinary Medicine, along with the fact there wasn't anything I wanted to do in life but go on adventures. Finally, after saving money and buying equipment, Bruce and I set out to begin 'The Great Adventure' on the sunny morning of Wednesday, September 22, 1976. I hope in telling the story of the adventure Bruce and I completed over 40 years ago, that you will seek to live your hopes, dreams, passions and adventures in life as well. Life is too short and precious not to live the life of your dreams - bon voyage! Cheers! Mark

Download or read book In Search of the Meaning of Life an Autobiography Book Eleven A Puerto Rican Adventure written by Mark D. Jones and published by In Search of the Meaning of Li. This book was released on 2018-10-28 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I had just finished the adventure of a lifetime bicycling through England, Scotland, Wales and France in the summer of 1979, but had no inkling of what my future held. I returned to Seattle with no job and little money to my name, didn't own a car and was living with Jim on Queen Anne Hill. My future was looking bleak. I'd rolled the dice and gambled everything on completing my long held dream of traveling across the Atlantic to bicycle in the U.K. and France, all the while knowing I'd have nothing waiting for me on my return to the Pacific Northwest - yet I was willing to risk everything for a dream.I'd once again enrolled in 'The School of Hard Knocks' during a series of mini-adventures that would give me the adrenaline rush of adventure and take me to the top of the world again, yet set me up to fail due to my overconfidence in my own abilities and loyalty to others. It was the story of my life all over again, from the highest highs to the lowest lows and everything in-between while pursuing adventure at all cost.Sometimes in life when you've lost your way and have no clue about the future, the best thing to do is simply nothing at all. That's exactly where I was following my solo-bicycle adventure to England, Scotland, Wales and France in the summer of 1979, with no idea of the direction to my future or any concept of what I should do with my life. My entire focus at the time was to procrastinate and delay making any decisions about a future I knew nothing about, thinking the longer I put it off the better. This is the story of how I crisscrossed the U.S. on transcontinental trips, traveled to Puerto Rico to meet a friend I'd only just met to go SCUBA diving in the Atlantic and discovered new ways to fail miserably despite having the best intentions in the world to succeed... Cheers! Mark

Download or read book In Search of the Meaning of Life an Autobiography Book Four The Great Adventure Part Two written by Mark D. Jones and published by In Search of the Meaning of Li. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bruce and I completed the first leg of The Great Adventure, traveling 1,931 miles from southwest of Flint, MI, to my aunt and uncle's house in Tallahassee, FL, over the course of 58 days on our bicycle adventure. We departed the Flint area on September 22, 1976 and arrived in Tallahassee on November 18th - low on funds and needing to recuperate at our third oasis on the bicycle trip to date. The question remained though as to what would happen to us on this second leg of the adventure? We were almost out of money and had no idea what to expect in Florida and along the Gulf Coast, and soon our thoughts would begin focusing on looking for jobs - without having any concept of how that would work out or how we could make it happen. Would our adventure succeed or fail miserably, leaving us stranded on the road out of money and ideas? As they say, no guts no glory, and here begins the story of the second leg of 'The Great Adventure.' The opportunity to journey and adventure kindles the human spirit like nothing else can. For to immerse oneself in adventure and test your meddle beyond your known capabilities and prevail despite the odds, is to conquer and overcome your fears, and find within yourself the strength, reserves and will to endure and survive in the most difficult of circumstances. I wish you all the very best on your adventures in life, no matter where life's path takes you on your journey of discovery! Adventure is a mindset and a perspective, for one can find adventure in whatever endeavor you choose to participate in - it doesn't have to be a physical challenge taking you to the ends of the Earth. 'To adventure' is to take life by the horns and try your very best, to blaze your own trail, and live your hopes, dreams and passions in life. Choose adventure, because life is so much richer and rewarding for having tried to live the life of your dreams no matter the outcome - win, lose or draw! Cheers! Mark

Download or read book My Life as I See It written by Dionne Warwick and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-11-22 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the first time, music legend and humanitarian activist Dionne Warwick reflects on 50 years in showbusiness and the lessons she has learned from being an artist, a mother and a global icon. From her rise to superstardom to raising millions of dollars for AIDS research, she gives readers a glimpse into her dazzling, inspiring life. 'If you think you can do it, you can do it' was the advice she got from her grandfather as a young girl - words she has never forgotten. Like her music and humanitarian work, her story is guaranteed to give hope and inspiration to people across the world.

Download or read book Recollections written by Viktor E. Frankl and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2008-08-04 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born in 1905 in the center of the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire, Viktor Frankl was a witness to the great political, philosophical, and scientific upheavals of the twentieth century. In these stirring recollections, Frankl describes how as a young doctor of neurology in prewar Vienna his disagreements with Freud and Adler led to the development of "the third Viennese School of Psychotherapy," known as logotherapy; recounts his harrowing trials in four concentration camps during the War; and reflects on the celebrity brought by the publication of Man's Search for Meaning in 1945.

Download or read book A Meaning to Life written by Michael Ruse and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-21 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does human life have any meaning? Does the question even make sense today? For centuries, the question of the meaning or purpose of human life was assumed by scholars and theologians to have a religious answer: life has meaning because humans were made in the image of a good god. In the 19th century, however, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution changed everything-and the human organism was seen to be more machine than spirit. Ever since, with the rise of science and decline of religious belief, there has been growing interest - and growing doubt - about whether human life really does have meaning. If it does, where might we find it? The historian and philosopher of science Michael Ruse investigates this question, and wonders whether we can find a new meaning to life within Darwinian views of human nature. If God no longer exists-or if God no longer cares-rather than promoting a bleak nihilism, many Darwinians think we can convert Darwin into a form of secular humanism. Ruse explains that, in a tradition going back to the time of Darwin himself, and represented today by the evolutionist E. O. Wilson, evolution is seen as progress -- "from monad to man" - and that positive meaning is found in continuing and supporting this upwards path of life. In A Meaning to Life, Michael Ruse argues that this is a false turn, and there is no real progress in the evolutionary process. Rather, meaning in the Darwinian age can be found if we turn to a kind of Darwinian existentialism, seeing our evolved human nature as the source of all meaning, both in the intellectual and social worlds. Ruse argues that it is only by accepting our true nature - evolved over millennia - that humankind can truly find what is meaningful.

Download or read book A Life Against the Grain written by Julian Lincoln Simon and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Although he spent thirty-five years of his life as a faculty member at three universities, his autobiography contains almost no discussion of departmental affairs or university politics, topics about which Simon had little or no interest. Rather, after the personal chronology and experiences, the book includes substantive chapters on research methods, population economics, and immigration. It also explains how Julian Simon became the economist he was. He analyzes crucial periods in his life when he developed his ideas on fundamental issues."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book In Search of the Meaning of Life an Autobiography Book Five The Great Adventure Part Three written by Mark D. Jones and published by In Search of the Meaning of Li. This book was released on 2019-03-17 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bruce and I traveled 1,931 miles on the first leg of our bicycle adventure from the Flint, MI, area to Tallahassee, FL. The second leg of our journey covered 2,594 miles and took us from Tallahassee to Key West, FL, and back, before following the Gulf Coast to Houston and down to Rockport, TX, where we were given jobs through the kindness and generosity of others. The question before us was what would the third leg of our adventure be like? Part Three of The Great Adventure would essentially be the second half of our journey, both literally and figuratively. In many ways, the Western portion of our journey would be a completely different experience for us than the first two legs of our trip had been. The fundamental question before us though, was how would we survive the endeavor? We'd find out the answer soon enough, as we set out to traverse the vast distances across the West and hopefully make it to Seattle to prepare for what would be the rest of our lives... I realized that I was compiling a record of what was a unique opportunity to live an adventurous life and take the path less-traveled by, and wanted to make sure I at least kept a record of everything I accomplished for the sake of my own memories. It wasn't until I began writing my autobiography in the early days of 1994, that I was able to connect the dots to clearly see the path in life my adventures had led me down. It was at that point when I understood that telling my story was something that might be able to help others find their way in life, too, because it's difficult to see the forest for the trees when you're in the middle of it. Once you realize that others have struggled along their paths in life as well, you realize it's all part of the journey, because it's impossible to have complete clarity when immersed in life's adventures - but keep moving forward one step at a time - for movement creates opportunity and opportunity opens doors, and just a foot in the door can lead to the rest of your life! Cheers! Mark

Download or read book In Search of Identity written by Anwar Sadat and published by Fontana Press. This book was released on 1978-01 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book When Breath Becomes Air written by Paul Kalanithi and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • This inspiring, exquisitely observed memoir finds hope and beauty in the face of insurmountable odds as an idealistic young neurosurgeon attempts to answer the question What makes a life worth living? NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • People • NPR • The Washington Post • Slate • Harper’s Bazaar • Time Out New York • Publishers Weekly • BookPage Finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction and the Books for a Better Life Award in Inspirational Memoir At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, and the next he was a patient struggling to live. And just like that, the future he and his wife had imagined evaporated. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi’s transformation from a naïve medical student “possessed,” as he wrote, “by the question of what, given that all organisms die, makes a virtuous and meaningful life” into a neurosurgeon at Stanford working in the brain, the most critical place for human identity, and finally into a patient and new father confronting his own mortality. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? What does it mean to have a child, to nurture a new life as another fades away? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir. Paul Kalanithi died in March 2015, while working on this book, yet his words live on as a guide and a gift to us all. “I began to realize that coming face to face with my own mortality, in a sense, had changed nothing and everything,” he wrote. “Seven words from Samuel Beckett began to repeat in my head: ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’” When Breath Becomes Air is an unforgettable, life-affirming reflection on the challenge of facing death and on the relationship between doctor and patient, from a brilliant writer who became both.

Download or read book Birth and Death of Meaning written by Ernest Becker and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-05-11 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, sociology and psychiatry to explain what makes people act the way they do.

Download or read book The Memoir Project written by Marion Roach Smith and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2011-06-09 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An extraordinary "practical resource for beginners" looking to write their own memoir—​now new and revised (Kirkus Reviews)! The greatest story you could write is one you've experienced yourself. Knowing where to start is the hardest part, but it just got a little easier with this essential guidebook for anyone wanting to write a memoir. Did you know that the #1 thing that baby boomers want to do in retirement is write a book—about themselves? It's not that every person has lived such a unique or dramatic life, but we inherently understand that writing a memoir—whether it's a book, blog, or just a letter to a child—is the single greatest path to self-examination. Through the use of disarmingly frank, but wildly fun tactics that offer you simple and effective guidelines that work, you can stop treading water in writing exercises or hiding behind writer's block. Previously self-published under the title, Writing What You Know: Raelia, this book has found an enthusiastic audience that now writes with intent.

Download or read book The Meaning of Happiness written by Alan Watts and published by New World Library. This book was released on 2018-07-20 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deep down, most people think that happiness comes from having or doing something. Here, in Alan Watts’s groundbreaking third book (originally published in 1940), he offers a more challenging thesis: authentic happiness comes from embracing life as a whole in all its contradictions and paradoxes, an attitude that Watts calls the “way of acceptance.” Drawing on Eastern philosophy, Western mysticism, and analytic psychology, Watts demonstrates that happiness comes from accepting both the outer world around us and the inner world inside us — the unconscious mind, with its irrational desires, lurking beyond the awareness of the ego. Although written early in his career, The Meaning of Happiness displays the hallmarks of his mature style: the crystal-clear writing, the homespun analogies, the dry wit, and the breadth of knowledge that made Alan Watts one of the most influential philosophers of his generation.

Download or read book An Improbable Life written by Trevor McDonald and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2020-05-14 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: