{"id":89,"date":"2011-09-08T05:57:38","date_gmt":"2011-09-08T05:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/aliteraryspirit\/?p=89"},"modified":"2011-09-08T14:51:19","modified_gmt":"2011-09-08T14:51:19","slug":"bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html","title":{"rendered":"[Bestseller Book Review] Taking our Places"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Purchase Taking Our Places<\/a> from the Beliefnet Shopping Mall<\/a>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up<\/strong>
\nby Norman Fischer
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong>Early in Norman Fischer\u2019s book Taking our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up, the author describes a scene in which four teenaged boys gather in his office to discuss the meaning of growing up.\u00a0 It is a scene that is sure to inspire longing amongst readers\u2014after all, how many of us had the opportunity to dialogue with a trusted adult about how to grow into mature and loving individuals?\u00a0 The teenaged boys are skeptical at first, but eventually, the importance of the task inspires their full commitment.Fischer uses this scene to open up a broader dialogue about maturity and taking one\u2019s place in the world.\u00a0 It is a topic that is, in my view, simultaneously appealing and repellant.\u00a0 On the one hand, we never stop growing and maturing\u2014so the book\u2019s content is always relevant.\u00a0 I could easily imagine reading this book every five years and gaining powerful insights with every reading.\u00a0 But the flipside is that Fischer\u2019s crisp and accurate descriptions of what it means to grow up\u2014becoming responsible to others and to life, learning to love and developing true maturity\u2014also raise important questions about the gaps in our own maturity.\u00a0 The book invites us to ask ourselves, \u201cAre we just full-sized human beings or have we truly grown up?\u201dAlthough Fischer practices Zen Buddhism and relates many examples from his tradition in the book, there were many broadly relevant\u2014and resonant\u2014passages in the book for readers from all faith traditions.\u00a0 His writing on the topic of responsibility is a great example.\u00a0 While most of us feel that responsibility is mired in notions of being staid and boring, Fischer provides a fresh perspective on the virtues of taking full responsibility for ourselves and others.\u00a0 He writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cResponsibility, far from limiting or shutting down our lives, provides the potential for opening.\u00a0 When we give ourselves to our situation, we\u2019re letting go of preferences and habits and trusting what\u2019s in front of us, with faith that it will provide the wisdom we need.\u00a0 To truly be responsible is to recognize that reality is smarter than we are.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Passages like this one make Fischer\u2019s book one of my favorites of the year, and of the decade.\u00a0 It\u2019s book like these that offer a new and thoroughly spiritual understanding of what it means to mature, loving adults in the world.<\/p>\n

Recommended for absolutely everyone<\/strong>, in particular, those facing a major life decision (career change, marriage, whether to have children) and want to tackle it with mindfulness.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Purchase Taking Our Places from the Beliefnet Shopping Mall. Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up by Norman Fischer Review:Early in Norman Fischer\u2019s book Taking our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up, the author describes a scene in which four teenaged boys gather in his office to discuss the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-buddhist-spirituality","category-general-spirituality"],"yoast_head":"\n[Bestseller Book Review] Taking our Places - A Literary Spirit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"[Bestseller Book Review] Taking our Places - A Literary Spirit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Purchase Taking Our Places from the Beliefnet Shopping Mall. Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up by Norman Fischer Review:Early in Norman Fischer\u2019s book Taking our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up, the author describes a scene in which four teenaged boys gather in his office to discuss the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Literary Spirit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-08T05:57:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-09-08T14:51:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/aliteraryspirit\/files\/2011\/09\/9780060587192-200x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Taz Tagore\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"[Bestseller Book Review] Taking our Places - A Literary Spirit","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"[Bestseller Book Review] Taking our Places - A Literary Spirit","og_description":"  Purchase Taking Our Places from the Beliefnet Shopping Mall. Taking Our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up by Norman Fischer Review:Early in Norman Fischer\u2019s book Taking our Places: The Buddhist Path to Truly Growing Up, the author describes a scene in which four teenaged boys gather in his office to discuss the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html","og_site_name":"A Literary Spirit","article_published_time":"2011-09-08T05:57:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-09-08T14:51:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/aliteraryspirit\/files\/2011\/09\/9780060587192-200x300.jpg"}],"author":"Taz Tagore","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html","name":"[Bestseller Book Review] Taking our Places - A Literary Spirit","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/aliteraryspirit\/files\/2011\/09\/9780060587192-200x300.jpg","datePublished":"2011-09-08T05:57:38+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-08T14:51:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/#\/schema\/person\/c2393b784e5f472625d978bb020c826a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/aliteraryspirit\/files\/2011\/09\/9780060587192-200x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/aliteraryspirit\/files\/2011\/09\/9780060587192-200x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/2011\/09\/bestseller-book-review-taking-our-places.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"[Bestseller Book Review] Taking our Places"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/","name":"A Literary Spirit","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Taz Tagore","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/#\/schema\/person\/c2393b784e5f472625d978bb020c826a","name":"Taz Tagore","description":"Taz Tagore is a leading social entrepreneur, author and leadership expert. She founded the award-winning non-profit called The Reciprocity Foundation that helps homeless youth access higher education and start innovative careers. She also actively writes about and teaches leadership to senior executives at Fortune 500 corporations and at universities including New York University and the University of Toronto. Taz\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work has been featured in countless publications such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal and she has been featured on a wide variety of nationally broadcast television and radio shows.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.laboroflove.typepad.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/author\/ttagore"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/aliteraryspirit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}