AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Learning to Fly : Reflections on Fear, Trust, and the Joy of Letting Go by Sam Keen ISBN: 0-7679-0177-0 Publisher: Broadway Books Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 4.8 (5 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Part memoir, part metaphor.
Comment: At age 62, Sam Keen learned to fly. In 1993, he started his training
on the flying trapeze at the San Francisco School of Circus Arts. The
fact that he was the oldest student at the school did not deter Keen
from pursuing his "strange passion" (p. 15). "Over the
years," he observes," I have discovered that it is hazardous
to ignore passing fantasies and emerging passions. To begin with, in
the degree that I cease to pursue my deepest passions, I will
gradually be controlled by my deepest fears. When passion no longer
waters and nurtures the psyche, fears spring up like weeds on the
depleted soil of abandoned fields. I suspect the major cause of
depression and despair and the appetite for violence in modern life is
the result of the masses of people who are enslaved by an economic
order that rewards them for laboring at jobs that do not engage their
passion for creativity and meaning" (pp. 16-17).

Part memoir,
part metaphor, Keen's book is filled with daring leaps, midair turns,
somersaults, and catches. For Keen, the trapeze is a good teacher.
From his six-year love affair with the trapeze, he derives insights
into fear, trust, letting go, and what it means to live life
passionately. If we learn to live life as a "ten-ring
circus," he writes, in "a world ruled by enchantment--where
magic existed before morality, wonder before worship, pleasure before
piety, and amazement before practicality" (p. 24), then we will
be "transformed, changed back into children whose horizons are
open" (p. 25). "The Great Path is a spiral journey,"
Keen notes. "Every day we begin again, knowing that danger and
death may be lurking, that we will be fearful and will need to
cultivate courage. We will need to keep our balance and discern when
it is time to wait and when to act. We will take leaps of faith,
fall, and rise again. If we are diligent in our practice, there will
be unexpected moments of grace and joy and a gradual growth of mastery
in fashioning our lives into something of beauty"
(p. 241).

Keen's LEARNING TO FLY is inspirational and insightful.
Although reading it did not inspire me to attempt a triple somersault,
it did encourage me to find a flying trapeze in my own life, and then
to practice it, knowing that "practice is perfect"
(p. 237).

G. Merritt

Rating: 5
Summary: Inspiration, courage and vitality
Comment: Everyone who reads Keen knows he writes very well and from the heart. But in this book his very soul flies through the air with his words. When Sam reviewed my book, PRIMAL AWARENESS, he said it was an adventurous search for the lost ark. LEARNING TO FLY is about finding the lost ark.

Rating: 5
Summary: Life Lessons
Comment: I read a passage from the book at my daughter's wedding and then I wished them wings and flight. I found this book to be absolutely fascinating and, at age 57 myself, found inspiration to try new ideas. Learning to Fly is never boring. I found the chapter-beginning drawings helpful as I tried to follow Sam Keen in flight, literally as well as figuratively. A real winner!

Similar Books:

	Title: Inward Bound : Exploring the Geography of Your Emotions by Sam Keen ISBN: 0553353888 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 May, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.00
	Title: To Love and Be Loved by Sam Keen ISBN: 0553375288 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 04 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95
	Title: Fire in the Belly : On Being a Man by Sam Keen ISBN: 0553351370 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.95
	Title: Hymns to an Unknown God : Awakening The Spirit In Everyday Life by Sam Keen ISBN: 0553375172 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $16.00
	Title: The Passionate Life: Stages of Loving by Sam Keen ISBN: 0062504681 Publisher: Harper SanFrancisco Pub. Date: June, 1992 List Price(USD): $15.00