Anna’s Reviews > The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life > Status Update

“When a person finds his high calling in life, it doesn’t feel like he has taken control; it feels like he has surrendered control.” And “A summons often comes in the form of love … and with that love comes an urge to make promises— to say, I will always love you. I will always serve you and be there for you.”

Possibility questions are crucial to building communities. Questions like, “what talents do we have here that haven’t been fully expressed?” “What can this place become in 2049?” “What assets can we deploy to help our neighborhood reach x goal?” Dreamcasting for the whole community…

If love is more about what chooses you than what you choose to love, then faith also is something that chooses us more than we can really choose it. A committed life is about living a life that is in tune with what is calling for you — what vocation, love, or community is calling for you? If you are living in the blunder of a first-mountain life, you may never hear when love calls.

“The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference.”

I just read a short passage about a Jersey singer that shared a valuable thought. Springsteen became more successful the more local, particular, and specific he got about describing Jersey.

He even got fans from Madrid, Spain to care about some Highway 9 from where he lived.

Maybe writing about Ukraine in a raw way isn’t going to turn people away because it’s not “theirs.” Perhaps it can be compelling.

Part 1 of this book has really been an inspirational pleasure to read. It’s shaken my perspective on life and substituting goals for commitments. However, as Brooks moves into the practical portion of the book — right now I am reading about vocation — the thought-provoking and dream-casting quality of his work has lessened for me. I struggle to put flesh to the extremely appealing skeleton he laid out before.

I think this book could change the way I see my life.