Plenty of writing on what ails our societies – persistent inequalities and injustices, destructive methods of power, corrosive models of leadership, cPlenty of writing on what ails our societies – persistent inequalities and injustices, destructive methods of power, corrosive models of leadership, climate related crises – provides food for thought. Tending Tomorrow offers that, and also food for action.
How? Right from its opening pages, it builds a compelling case for possibility; possibility in the sense of a thing within our reach, rather than what may or may not come to be.
The possibility here is that of a different world. But what is imagined is not what might result from the kind of upheaval that brings even more injustices and sufferings upon the most vulnerable and exploited. It is what could be created from shifting mindsets among those of us who have been the most powerful and privileged; from changing personal perspectives (definitely possible) to break ground towards a kind of coexistence (a plausible next step) that helps build a world of mutual flourishing for all creation.
We can remake culture, recreate it, the author convinces us, because we have created it the way it is, and because we know of real alternatives, individual and interpersonal, human-scaled and demonstrable. Tending Tomorrow submits this proposal in a blend of real world examples, a breadth of personal experience, and a diversity of wisdom collected from relationships, communities, conversations, observations, personal faith, and close study.
This finely wrought book rewards the reader with plenty to work through, but like work that we love, it’s not a tiring chore, it’s a pleasure. Although I'm generally a slow reader, Tending Tomorrow drew me quickly along, thanks to well-proportioned chapters and sections, well-connected stories and ideas, a strong sense of direction from start to finish, a constructive disposition, and direct yet elegant prose (there are passages and sentences imbued with a kind of poetry, delightful to take in).
Here is a call to action. Embrace what we already know within our core: that interconnectedness is a fact of existence, interdependence flows from it, and to behave otherwise is senseless, even fatalistic.
One reader alone may not be able to change the world, but Tending Tomorrow reminds us we are not alone, and that a change of heart, the best first step, is well within our reach....more
**spoiler alert** Joseph Mitchell voiced an ambivalence about the past, particularly in the old city that he loved and that was slipping away from him**spoiler alert** Joseph Mitchell voiced an ambivalence about the past, particularly in the old city that he loved and that was slipping away from him, with an insight and style I've yet to encounter anywhere else. The title story - a masterpiece - simultaneously revels in the beauties of a fading place and time while delivering a sobering caution against the pitfalls of nostalgia. The first time I read it I thought I was reading one kind of story when suddenly Mitchell set me straight with a knock on the jaw that opened my eyes. I don't know how he did it. Perhaps he was magician.
As much as Mitchell's profiles are about the fascinating characters who were his subjects (and, in a few cases, his inventions), they reveal just as much about Mitchell himself, and about what made his heart tick. And they are about what makes mine tick, too. And also yours, should you pick up this book and start reading. It's that good. You need not read the stories in order; I suggest starting with "Professor Sea Gull" and then "Joe Gould's Secret."...more
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