While some readers will find his revelations obvious, Brooks’s melding of personal responsibility with respect for community will have broad appeal. As he teases apart his metaphor, Brooks relates his own experiences: a newfound love after divorce and a religious awakening that has brought him to the cusp of Christianity from Judaism. Enjoying one’s work, getting married, studying philosophy or religion, and establishing community helps to form the path between the mountains, Brooks writes. Through the ensuing stage of suffering (the valley), one gets the strength and life experience to commit to climbing the second mountain, where Brooks believes true joy can be found. Along the way, one can expect failure or setbacks. Instead, Brooks now professes that one builds character by giving oneself away to a community-or to a cause out of love-a premise that manifests itself in his theory of “the two mountains.” For Brooks, the summit of the first mountain is traditional success based on one’s achievements. He confesses that he wishes to “in part compensate for the limitations of” his previous book, as he no longer believes that character formation is based entirely on individual achievements. In The Second Mountain, David Brooks explores the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a. In short, this book is meant to help us all lead more meaningful lives.In this ardent follow-up to The Road to Character, New York Times columnist Brooks explores his thinking about factors that form a moral life. In The Second Mountain, Brooks shows what can happen when we put commitment-making at the center of our lives. The path to repair is through making deeper commitments. We have taken individualism to the extreme-and in the process we have torn the social fabric in a thousand different ways. We live in a society, Brooks argues, that celebrates freedom, that tells us to be true to ourselves, at the expense of surrendering to a cause, rooting ourselves in a neighborhood, binding ourselves to others by social solidarity and love. But it’s also a provocative social commentary. In short, this book is meant to help us all lead more meaningful lives. He gathers their wisdom on how to choose a partner, how to pick a vocation, how to live out a philosophy, and how we can begin to integrate our commitments into one overriding purpose. Brooks looks at a range of people who have lived joyous, committed lives, and who have embraced the necessity and beauty of dependence. Our personal fulfillment depends on how well we choose and execute these commitments. In The Second Mountain, David Brooks explores the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose: to a spouse and family, to a vocation, to a philosophy or faith, and to a community. They embrace a life of interdependence, not independence. They want the things that are truly worth wanting, not the things other people tell them to want. On the second mountain, life moves from self-centered to other-centered. There’s another, bigger mountain out there that is actually my mountain.Īnd so they embark on a new journey. They realize: This wasn’t my mountain after all. But when they get to the top of that mountain, something happens. Their goals on this first mountain are the ones our culture endorses: to be a success, to make your mark, to experience personal happiness. They get out of school, they start a career, and they begin climbing the mountain they thought they were meant to climb. Life, for these people, has often followed what we might think of as a two-mountain shape. “Deeply moving, frequently eloquent and extraordinarily incisive.”- The Washington PostĮvery so often, you meet people who radiate joy-who seem to know why they were put on this earth, who glow with a kind of inner light. Everybody tells you to live for a cause larger than yourself, but how exactly do you do it? The author of The Road to Character explores what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self-centered world.
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