The 100 Book Mission™: Book 7

Clowning in Rome; Henri J.M. Nouwen; DLT


"Of the virtuosi we say, ‘How do they do it?’ Of the clowns we say, ‘They are like us.’ The clowns remind us . . . that we share the same human weaknesses."

A book about the values of "solitude, celibacy, prayer and contemplation"- I must say that these 4 topics scare loads of people off, or at least put them off; myself included.
Mostly it's because people are afraid of being alone with themselves, of seeing things as they are and of trusting a god they've known but never seen. Celibacy then, is another matter, mostly concerning people leading the religious life, to whom this book was addressed.

These activities in turn lead to a certain autonomy which makes Love genuine, coming not out of a need for affection or completion, but rather a generous outward act.

This gives seemingly insignificant activities (those to which Nouwen refers as "clowning") a value which by far surpasses the actual act.

Not a book for everyone- it's addressed at people in Christian ministry after all- but what's inside still does count.

Tut tut tut...

Dear Reader,

My sincerest apologies go to you, faithful disciple of debris ™, who has been deprived of my semi-regular mental meanderings.

About the books.

I read a book called Clowning in Rome; it's very good, I should've mentioned it long ago but haven't. Work has been getting to me, so I couldn't really take time off and read.

I also happen to have acquired a motor scooter, which is making reading on the bus a tad impossible.

So at the moment I'm reading nineteen eighty-four, which is sounding incredibly naive and optimistic, in hindsight.

I have also made the move back to a Windows Xp machine after 4 sad months on a 17" iMac loaded with OS X 10.4. If you ask me, Apple should've stuck to fruit.

Happy 1st of April!