I take away from this book that Brooks does a lot of grousing. He often points to his Jewish heritage and upbringing then he juxtaposes that against the fact he grew up in a Protest neighborhood and attended Christian schools and activities and had many Christian friends all also influencing his life. He comes back many times during the first part of the book to his being an atheist yet, throughout the book he quotes the Torah sometimes and more often the Bible and applies it to his life and the situations he finds himself or other people in. His analogy of the two mountains is the first mountain is humans doing what society tells us we want - a good job, friends, and to make our mark in the world but, the second mountain is us attaining our climb to the top of the first mountain, looking around and saying, "Is that all there is? There must be more to life that fulfilling the obligations others put upon us. When do we get to do what we want? When do we explore our own beliefs and follow our own drams instead of what others see for us?" His book is his grappling with his second mountain - struggling and overcoming all the obstacles blocking his way to obtaining his own realizations for what he wants in life. His premise is his struggle is the same for everyone - finding what you believe in, finding relationships that work for you on your terms. finding fulfilling work to occupy ourselves and sustain us and making a way so that it all works in tandem as a moral uplifting life. He offers some thought provoking concepts once you wade through all his back and forth on religion and its teachings. He comes out being a very Messianic Jew (a Jew that believes in Jesus as the Christ not simply a prophet) and whatever he thinks he is saying I believe the seeds of Christianity are planted within him. There are some nuggets of learning to be had here once you get past or totally ignore his wrestling match with what he believes.
- Shirley J
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