Elaine Pagels, Princeton University, author of The Gnostic Gospels
Twelve literary gems illuminate "the harrowing business of rescuing joy from heartbreak." Simmons tells the story of his spiritual journey with wisdom and humor, finding answers to life’s deepest questions in everything from turtle behavior to Buddhist philosophy to Wallace Stevens’ poetry to the mating practices of toads. He shows us how, against all odds, to live lives of depth, compassion, and courage.
Rebecca Pepper Sinkler, former editor, The New York Times Book Review
Learning to Fall will change you. Reading its pages, you will find your losses, hardships and failures becoming occasions for grace.
Scholar, storyteller, and rational mystic, Simmons sees the everyday miracles in "a world of worn shoes and rose petals, laughter and linguine, music and mold." Each chapter weaves stories together with insights on core personal and spiritual issues. Some examples:
- In "Getting Up in the Morning," the discovery of a castoff copy of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations at the dump leads to an exploration of the Stoics’ attitude of acceptance—and to a deeper understanding of the dump.
- In "Unfinished Houses," the story of his neighbors’ talent for never finishing their houses ("if our town were a country, its national flag would be the blue tarp") leads to a discussion of the perpetually unfinished state of the self, and finally to an embrace of the present moment as "the unfinished house in which we dwell."
- In the title essay, "Learning to Fall," the story of his perilous last mountain hike, together with a Zen parable and the local legend of an Indian chief's death-embracing leap from a mountaintop, serve a meditation on learning to live within mystery.
