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Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living
“I’m a person who listens for a living. I listen for wisdom, and beauty, and for voices not shouting to be heard. This book chronicles some of what I’ve learned in what has become a conversation across time and generations, across disciplines and denominations.”
Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and National Humanities Medalist Krista Tippett has interviewed the most extraordinary voices examining the great questions of meaning for our time. The heart of her work on her national public radio program and podcast, On Being, has been to shine a light on people whose insights kindle in us a sense of wonder and courage. Scientists in a variety of fields; theologians from an array of faiths; poets, activists, and many others have all opened themselves up to Tippett's compassionate yet searching conversation.
In Becoming Wise, Tippett distills the insights she has gleaned from this luminous conversation in its many dimensions into a coherent narrative journey, over time and from mind to mind. The book is a master class in living, curated by Tippett and accompanied by a delightfully ecumenical dream team of teaching faculty.
The open questions and challenges of our time are intimate and civilizational all at once, Tippett says – definitions of when life begins and when death happens, of the meaning of community and family and identity, of our relationships to technology and through technology. The wisdom we seek emerges through the raw materials of the everyday. And the enduring question of what it means to be human has now become inextricable from the question of who we are to each other.
This book offers a grounded and fiercely hopeful vision of humanity for this century – of personal growth but also renewed public life and human spiritual evolution. It insists on the possibility of a common life for this century marked by resilience and redemption, with beauty as a core moral value and civility and love as muscular practice. Krista Tippett's great gift, in her work and in Becoming Wise, is to avoid reductive simplifications but still find the golden threads that weave people and ideas together into a shimmering braid.
One powerful common denominator of the lessons imparted to Tippett is the gift of presence, of the exhilaration of engagement with life for its own sake, not as a means to an end. But presence does not mean passivity or acceptance of the status quo. Indeed Tippett and her teachers are people whose work meets, and often drives, powerful forces of change alive in the world today. In the end, perhaps the greatest blessing conveyed by the lessons of spiritual genius Tippett harvests in Becoming Wise is the strength to meet the world where it really is, and then to make it better.
Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and National Humanities Medalist Krista Tippett has interviewed the most extraordinary voices examining the great questions of meaning for our time. The heart of her work on her national public radio program and podcast, On Being, has been to shine a light on people whose insights kindle in us a sense of wonder and courage. Scientists in a variety of fields; theologians from an array of faiths; poets, activists, and many others have all opened themselves up to Tippett's compassionate yet searching conversation.
In Becoming Wise, Tippett distills the insights she has gleaned from this luminous conversation in its many dimensions into a coherent narrative journey, over time and from mind to mind. The book is a master class in living, curated by Tippett and accompanied by a delightfully ecumenical dream team of teaching faculty.
The open questions and challenges of our time are intimate and civilizational all at once, Tippett says – definitions of when life begins and when death happens, of the meaning of community and family and identity, of our relationships to technology and through technology. The wisdom we seek emerges through the raw materials of the everyday. And the enduring question of what it means to be human has now become inextricable from the question of who we are to each other.
This book offers a grounded and fiercely hopeful vision of humanity for this century – of personal growth but also renewed public life and human spiritual evolution. It insists on the possibility of a common life for this century marked by resilience and redemption, with beauty as a core moral value and civility and love as muscular practice. Krista Tippett's great gift, in her work and in Becoming Wise, is to avoid reductive simplifications but still find the golden threads that weave people and ideas together into a shimmering braid.
One powerful common denominator of the lessons imparted to Tippett is the gift of presence, of the exhilaration of engagement with life for its own sake, not as a means to an end. But presence does not mean passivity or acceptance of the status quo. Indeed Tippett and her teachers are people whose work meets, and often drives, powerful forces of change alive in the world today. In the end, perhaps the greatest blessing conveyed by the lessons of spiritual genius Tippett harvests in Becoming Wise is the strength to meet the world where it really is, and then to make it better.
288 pages, Audiobook
First published April 5, 2016
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January 8, 2025
Perhaps, like me, you've listened to On Being on your local NPR station or by podcast for years. Perhaps you listen not only to the gracefully edited version of the program but also to the messier, more intimate, unedited versions. If so, you will love this book.
Perhaps you've never heard of the author or her program but, like Solomon of old, you yearn to be wise. You too will find this book a refreshing stream in the desert.
Krista Tippett knows the power of a good first sentence. She has commented on how arrested she was by John O'Donohue's "It's strange to be here." Or Reinhold Niebuhr's "Man is his own most vexing problem."
Her own first sentence reads, "I'm a person who listens for a living." She begins with "I," not with a more distant journalistic third person voice. The felicitous phrase "listens for a living" refers to far more than her job. It announces that she has a calling, one that involves living itself), and that she is seeking "voices not shouting to be heard."
The search for wisdom can't be separated from the search for self-awareness. The subject and the seeker are one in this case. Like both of Tippett's other books, this one is an example of what Michelle Herman calls "stealth memoir." (http://www.riverteethjournal.com/blog...) It is "An Inquiry" as the subtitle states into "Mystery and the Art of Living." It is also an inquiry into a process of understanding ideas in relationship to human beings who explore them and, at their best, embody them. The gerund "Becoming" (like "Being" in the title of the radio program) can't be separated from Krista Tippett herself.
Pursuing wisdom in public over the course of the last twelve years could be an overwhelming and confusing experience. After interviewing hundreds of people, reading not only their books but digesting other interviews and videos in preparation for conversation, the author might be forgiven if she never stepped back long enough to look at the whole.
How does she make sense of all of it? By choosing five themes: words, flesh, love, faith, and hope. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the Bible will hear echoes of the prologue to the Gospel of John ("The Word became flesh. . .") and the famous "love chapter" I Corinthians 13. However, since these chapters are containers for people of many faiths and of no faith, these words describe no narrow orthodoxy but expand capaciously to fit all of the above.
Each chapter includes large sections of interviews excerpted from the online transcripts of On Being interviews. Again, this could feel cumbersome or repetitive to readers. What prevents that from happening, however, is the personal story of the author doing with her readers what she asks her subjects to do in radio interviews: reflect on how they themselves make meaning, starting with the very first question, “what was the spiritual or religious background of your childhood?”
I’m a lover of the memoir genre quite aware of the accusations critics have made against it, narcissism leading the way. For that reason, I love “stealth” memoir, the kind that doesn’t announce itself and is quiet. The kind that includes both the author and the reader but provides what Parker Palmer would call a “third thing,” a subject much greater than either, a subject big enough to inspire the kind of humility, curiosity, and resilience that leads to wisdom.
The memoir sections inside this book illustrate one of the most profound truths about wisdom: it can’t be grasped. It’s never once and done. It can’t be extracted or abstracted indefinitely. Like the relationship between grandfather and granddaughter and father and daughter, it keeps moving, changing, and growing. And it ends with hope.
Perhaps you've never heard of the author or her program but, like Solomon of old, you yearn to be wise. You too will find this book a refreshing stream in the desert.
Krista Tippett knows the power of a good first sentence. She has commented on how arrested she was by John O'Donohue's "It's strange to be here." Or Reinhold Niebuhr's "Man is his own most vexing problem."
Her own first sentence reads, "I'm a person who listens for a living." She begins with "I," not with a more distant journalistic third person voice. The felicitous phrase "listens for a living" refers to far more than her job. It announces that she has a calling, one that involves living itself), and that she is seeking "voices not shouting to be heard."
The search for wisdom can't be separated from the search for self-awareness. The subject and the seeker are one in this case. Like both of Tippett's other books, this one is an example of what Michelle Herman calls "stealth memoir." (http://www.riverteethjournal.com/blog...) It is "An Inquiry" as the subtitle states into "Mystery and the Art of Living." It is also an inquiry into a process of understanding ideas in relationship to human beings who explore them and, at their best, embody them. The gerund "Becoming" (like "Being" in the title of the radio program) can't be separated from Krista Tippett herself.
Pursuing wisdom in public over the course of the last twelve years could be an overwhelming and confusing experience. After interviewing hundreds of people, reading not only their books but digesting other interviews and videos in preparation for conversation, the author might be forgiven if she never stepped back long enough to look at the whole.
How does she make sense of all of it? By choosing five themes: words, flesh, love, faith, and hope. Anyone with a passing knowledge of the Bible will hear echoes of the prologue to the Gospel of John ("The Word became flesh. . .") and the famous "love chapter" I Corinthians 13. However, since these chapters are containers for people of many faiths and of no faith, these words describe no narrow orthodoxy but expand capaciously to fit all of the above.
Each chapter includes large sections of interviews excerpted from the online transcripts of On Being interviews. Again, this could feel cumbersome or repetitive to readers. What prevents that from happening, however, is the personal story of the author doing with her readers what she asks her subjects to do in radio interviews: reflect on how they themselves make meaning, starting with the very first question, “what was the spiritual or religious background of your childhood?”
I’m a lover of the memoir genre quite aware of the accusations critics have made against it, narcissism leading the way. For that reason, I love “stealth” memoir, the kind that doesn’t announce itself and is quiet. The kind that includes both the author and the reader but provides what Parker Palmer would call a “third thing,” a subject much greater than either, a subject big enough to inspire the kind of humility, curiosity, and resilience that leads to wisdom.
The memoir sections inside this book illustrate one of the most profound truths about wisdom: it can’t be grasped. It’s never once and done. It can’t be extracted or abstracted indefinitely. Like the relationship between grandfather and granddaughter and father and daughter, it keeps moving, changing, and growing. And it ends with hope.
October 6, 2018
I am a huge fan of her podcast but I could only finish half this book and here's why: Tippett writes excellent sentences and paragraphs but, cohesively, this was not an excellent book.
It's like when you ramble on through a bottle of wine on a Friday night with an incredibly eloquent friend and she just keeps showing you all these YouTube videos (except here it's poems) and you're like ugh Krista let's just have a straightforward discussion. Or maybe you enjoy that kind of stuff--in that case you'd give this 5 stars. So maybe I just needed a bottle of wine.
It's like when you ramble on through a bottle of wine on a Friday night with an incredibly eloquent friend and she just keeps showing you all these YouTube videos (except here it's poems) and you're like ugh Krista let's just have a straightforward discussion. Or maybe you enjoy that kind of stuff--in that case you'd give this 5 stars. So maybe I just needed a bottle of wine.
May 8, 2016
I almost regretted buying this when I read the acknowledgements and saw that Tippett is BFFs with Serene Jones (the current and disastrous president of my old seminary). I'm glad I ignored my misgivings--this is perhaps the best book I've read in the last year, maybe longer. Tippett draws on interviews with people of all faiths and none--mystics, activists, scientists, writers, teachers--and finds in them convergent messages about how to live well in an imperfect world. The book got better and better, with the last chapter (on hope) being so beautiful and pertinent I wanted to read the whole thing out loud to my spouse. This is a book on spirituality I think anyone open-minded could love, whether theist, animist, atheist, or other.
May 17, 2022
Becoming Wise contains snippets of the author’s autobiography, but most of the book's attention is given to excerpted interview conversations from her NPR show, On Being. These excerpts are introduced with commentary by the author which provide perspective and context. The audio edition of this book contains the actual audio recordings from the On Being broadcasts. (Note: In May 2022 it was announced that as of June 2022 the On Being show would be changing from a weekly show to a "seasonal podcast.")
The book’s narrative and conversation excerpts are organized into five chapters focusing on five concepts— words, flesh, love, faith, and hope. The author, Krista Tippett, identifies these five concepts as the “raw materials” of “superstar virtues” of “love, compassion [and] forgiveness.”
The types of interviewees referenced by this book are wide-ranging from poets to scientists, and from theologians to atheists. As suggested by the show’s name “On Being” the interviews focus on various life philosophies and generally include a visit to the subject of spirituality.
Krista Tippett refers to these interviewees as conversational partners. At the end of the book is included a list of 414 conversational partners from the On Being show between the years 2003-2015. All of these conversations can be accessed at http://onbeing.org.
The following is a list of the names of conversational partners that are quoted in this book. Many of them are referenced more than once throughout the book, but I have listed them only once in the order in which they first show up in the book. I have included links with each name to their biographic data. The book also includes numerous references (not listed below) to various writers, poets, and historical people who have not been conversational partners on the On Being, show.
The book’s narrative and conversation excerpts are organized into five chapters focusing on five concepts— words, flesh, love, faith, and hope. The author, Krista Tippett, identifies these five concepts as the “raw materials” of “superstar virtues” of “love, compassion [and] forgiveness.”
The types of interviewees referenced by this book are wide-ranging from poets to scientists, and from theologians to atheists. As suggested by the show’s name “On Being” the interviews focus on various life philosophies and generally include a visit to the subject of spirituality.
Krista Tippett refers to these interviewees as conversational partners. At the end of the book is included a list of 414 conversational partners from the On Being show between the years 2003-2015. All of these conversations can be accessed at http://onbeing.org.
The following is a list of the names of conversational partners that are quoted in this book. Many of them are referenced more than once throughout the book, but I have listed them only once in the order in which they first show up in the book. I have included links with each name to their biographic data. The book also includes numerous references (not listed below) to various writers, poets, and historical people who have not been conversational partners on the On Being, show.
Elizabeth Alexander
Rachel Naomi Remen
Frances Kissling
Ellen Davis
Calvin Dewitt
Marie Howe
John Paul Lederach
Ann Hamilton
Vincent Harding
Walter Brueggemann
Dan Barber
Matthew Sanford
John O'Donohue
Jean Vanier
Bessel van der Kolk
Parker Palmer
my link text
Joanna Macy
John Lewis
john a powell
Simone Campbell
Xavier Le Pichon
Paul Elie
Kate Braestrup
Robert Coles
Nathan Schneider
Shane Claiborne
Natalie Batalha
Brian Greene
Jonathan Sacks
Michael McCullough
Pico lyer
Arthur Zajonc
Richard Rodriguez
George Coyne
Guy Consolmagno
Margaret Wertheim
Reza Aslan
Christian Wiman
David Sloan Wilson
Andrew Reskin
Brené Brown
Maria Popova
December 11, 2016
too many adjectives! such odd phrasing! how does one interpret '...some of the margins that are in fact the heart beat of society'? ; perhaps it is my current state of mind (too much at work, too much writing on my part), but I gave up on this book after the first section. It was simply too much work for not a lot of gain. Tippett has an interesting background and has interviewed many people who have things of interest to say, but the narrative pulling the pieces together was too heavily ornamented for comprehension. I was also uncertain of whether I agreed with the premise of the book 'What makes us human is our relationship with each other'. (an update of 'no man is an island'?) I stumbled over that one because those engaged in contemplative lives are in relationships with whom? I did get a small nugget in the form of a great quote 'Don't ask the mountain to move. Just take a pebble every time you visit' from John Paul Lederach (an expert in conflict resolution) Perhaps another time.
February 29, 2020
I loved the content of this book, but it did not fully work for me as a book rather than as a collection of interviews from a podcast. This worked much better for me when I switched to the audio, and with that said, I recommend just sticking to the podcast. You will get everything from it that this book has to offer (which is not nothing! just that the book is superfluous IMO)
June 12, 2017
Finally. . . I finished this book! Though to be truthful, I scanned parts of it. A class at church has been studying it, and it is not meant to be a study book. We have had some good discussions, due mostly to the creativity of different facilitators. The book is loaded with gems, but the formatting made it difficult for me to read. It has only five chapters, which are sooooo long. My advice: listen to Krista Tippett's podcasts. They are more digestible.
April 21, 2016
This review originally ran on Everyday eBook
After the first season of the podcast "Serial" ended, my social media feeds were filled with pleas for new, amazing programs to listen to; one of the most suggested was On Being, hosted by Krista Tippett. Tippett's podcast is a series of conversations (usually between Tippett and one guest) that explore what it means to be human. Guests include theologians from a variety of faiths, scientists of varied disciplines, authors, philosophers, poets, and activists. In her new book, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry Into the Mystery and Art of Living, Tippett distills some of what she has learned through her own life and through her numerous interviews and interactions into a guide on living.
Tippett's previous book, Einstein's God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit, was a New York Times bestseller; in it, Tippett collected edited transcripts of conversations that were about science and religion. Becoming Wise, while including many snippets of her conversations, follows more of a narrative arc and captures Tippett's voice, including her own life experiences and learning curve. From her childhood in Oklahoma to her experiences as a journalist in the divided Berlin to her experiences as parent, she gives her audience insight into how her own views have evolved and changed.
Becoming Wise is structured around five themes expressed with deceptively simple words: Words, Flesh, Love, Faith, and Hope. Accompanying each theme is a great exploration of how it affects us, how we can use it more effectively, how it fits into our greater civilization. This is not about wisdom as we learn in school: facts and reason. This is the wisdom of living in the world, living a good life, being present -- both physically and mentally. At one point, when addressing the question of what the commonality is among the wisest people she has met, she says, "an embodied capacity to hold power and tenderness in a surprising, creative interplay ... it is an experience of physical presence as much as consciousness and spirit."
The conversations in Becoming Wise are a wonderful antidote to our current political climate. Filled with potential and acceptance, Tippett encourages civilized, respectful debate, kindness, and forgiveness. When presenting her with the National Medal of Honor, President Obama praised her for "thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence." Becoming Wise is indeed a thoughtful dive into the mysteries while also pulling together the amazement of what we can be and what we can do.
After the first season of the podcast "Serial" ended, my social media feeds were filled with pleas for new, amazing programs to listen to; one of the most suggested was On Being, hosted by Krista Tippett. Tippett's podcast is a series of conversations (usually between Tippett and one guest) that explore what it means to be human. Guests include theologians from a variety of faiths, scientists of varied disciplines, authors, philosophers, poets, and activists. In her new book, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry Into the Mystery and Art of Living, Tippett distills some of what she has learned through her own life and through her numerous interviews and interactions into a guide on living.
Tippett's previous book, Einstein's God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit, was a New York Times bestseller; in it, Tippett collected edited transcripts of conversations that were about science and religion. Becoming Wise, while including many snippets of her conversations, follows more of a narrative arc and captures Tippett's voice, including her own life experiences and learning curve. From her childhood in Oklahoma to her experiences as a journalist in the divided Berlin to her experiences as parent, she gives her audience insight into how her own views have evolved and changed.
Becoming Wise is structured around five themes expressed with deceptively simple words: Words, Flesh, Love, Faith, and Hope. Accompanying each theme is a great exploration of how it affects us, how we can use it more effectively, how it fits into our greater civilization. This is not about wisdom as we learn in school: facts and reason. This is the wisdom of living in the world, living a good life, being present -- both physically and mentally. At one point, when addressing the question of what the commonality is among the wisest people she has met, she says, "an embodied capacity to hold power and tenderness in a surprising, creative interplay ... it is an experience of physical presence as much as consciousness and spirit."
The conversations in Becoming Wise are a wonderful antidote to our current political climate. Filled with potential and acceptance, Tippett encourages civilized, respectful debate, kindness, and forgiveness. When presenting her with the National Medal of Honor, President Obama praised her for "thoughtfully delving into the mysteries of human existence." Becoming Wise is indeed a thoughtful dive into the mysteries while also pulling together the amazement of what we can be and what we can do.
June 15, 2016
It has taken me a while to read this book because I only ever wanted to take it in a bit at a time, and then sit with the lessons Tippett, host of the NPR show On Being, offers up, and savor them. Which means that, having now read through to the last page, I feel I wouldn't be remiss to go back to page one and start over: there is so much quiet, profound wisdom in this book.
It is composed of six chapters: Introduction: The Age of Us; Words: The Poetry of Creatures; Flesh: the Body's Grace; Love: A Few Things I've Learned; Faith: Evolution; and Hope: Reimagined. It seemed particularly appropriate to finish this morning on hope, given yesterday's tragedy in Orlando. There is so much ignorance and hatred in this world, and yet it is important, imperative, not to succumb, but instead to nurture gratitude and hope and remain active, to fight against the bigotry and arrogance.
Tippett, over the years, has spoken with hundreds of wise men and women. In this book, she turns to those conversations and reproduces some of the pithiest exchanges. Her quest feels very personal: she is trying to make sense (and heart) of it all for herself. But her quest also feels universal—because don't we all want to make sense of this crazy thing called life? The questions she asks, the thoughts she pursues, are questions and thoughts I might have if I paid these matters more attention. I thank her for doing it for me.
My copy of the book is bristling with flags. For this report, I think I will just quote some of the lines and passages that struck me.
"What does it mean to be human? What matters in a life? What matters in a death? How to be of service to each other and the world? These questions are being reborn, reframed, in our age of interdependence with far-flung strangers. The question of what it means to be human is now inextricable from the question of who we are to each other. We have riches of knowledge and insight, of tools both tangible and spiritual, to rise to this calling. We watch our technologies becoming more intelligent, and speculate imaginatively about their potential to become conscious. All the while, we have it in us to become wise. Wisdom leavens intelligences, and ennobles consciousness, and advances evolution itself."
She speaks of the inquiry into the nature of "soul" or "spirit" as leading "organically, along straight or meandering paths, into the roots of the curiosity that becomes, in adulthood, passion and vocation."
In one conversation, she discusses "generous listening," which itself is "powered by curiosity. . . . It involves a kind of vulnerability—a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity." Generous listening, she says, yields better questions—because, contrary to what we learn in school, there is such a thing as a bad question. "It's hard to meet a simplistic question with anything but a simplistic answer. It's hard to transcend a combative question. But it's hard to resist a generous question. We all have it in us to formulate questions that invite honesty, dignity, and revelation. There is something redemptive and life-giving about asking a better question." Surely, Tippett herself epitomizes generous listening. When she needs to "hold" a question, turn it over in her mind, dwell on it, she's not afraid to do so.
"The crack in the middle where people on both sides absolutely refuse to see the other as evil—this is where I want to live and what I want to widen."
"We are matter, kindred with ocean and tree and sky. We are flesh and blood and bone. To sink into that is a relief, a homecoming. Mind and spirit are as physical as they are mental. The line we'd drawn between them was whimsy, borne of the limits of our understanding. Emotions and memories, from despair to gladness, root in our bodies. . . . Our bodies are longing and joy and fear and a lifelong desire to be safe and loved, incarnate."
"If we are stretching to live wiser and not just smarter, we will aspire to learn what love means, how it arises and deepens, how it withers and revives, what it looks like as a private good but also a common good. I long to make this word echo differently in hearts and ears—not less complicated, but differently so. Love as muscular, resilient. Love as social—not just about how we are intimately, but how we are together, in public. I want to aspire to a carnal practical love—eros become civic, not sexual and yet passionate, full-bodied. Because it is the best of which we are capable, loving is also supremely exacting, not always but again and again. Love is something we only master in moments. It crosses the chasms between us, and likewise brings them into relief. It is as captive to the human condition as anything we attempt."
Oh, and there's so much more: about compassion, about allowing our hearts to be educated in relationship with others, about paradise being right in front of us, about mystery (which "lands in us as a humbling fullness of reality we cannot sum up or pin down"), about befriending reality in all its beauty and pain, about hope and truth.
She ends: "We are so achingly frail and powerful all at once, in this adolescence of our species. But I have seen that wisdom emerges precisely through those moments when we have to hold seemingly opposing realities in a creative tension and interplay: power and frailty, birth and death, pain and hope, beauty and brokenness, mystery and conviction, calm and buoyancy, mine and yours. . . . The mystery and art of living are as grand as the sweep of a lifetime and the lifetime of a species. And they are as close as beginning, quietly, to mine whatever grace and beauty, whatever healing and attentiveness, are possible in this moment and the next and the next one after that."
It is composed of six chapters: Introduction: The Age of Us; Words: The Poetry of Creatures; Flesh: the Body's Grace; Love: A Few Things I've Learned; Faith: Evolution; and Hope: Reimagined. It seemed particularly appropriate to finish this morning on hope, given yesterday's tragedy in Orlando. There is so much ignorance and hatred in this world, and yet it is important, imperative, not to succumb, but instead to nurture gratitude and hope and remain active, to fight against the bigotry and arrogance.
Tippett, over the years, has spoken with hundreds of wise men and women. In this book, she turns to those conversations and reproduces some of the pithiest exchanges. Her quest feels very personal: she is trying to make sense (and heart) of it all for herself. But her quest also feels universal—because don't we all want to make sense of this crazy thing called life? The questions she asks, the thoughts she pursues, are questions and thoughts I might have if I paid these matters more attention. I thank her for doing it for me.
My copy of the book is bristling with flags. For this report, I think I will just quote some of the lines and passages that struck me.
"What does it mean to be human? What matters in a life? What matters in a death? How to be of service to each other and the world? These questions are being reborn, reframed, in our age of interdependence with far-flung strangers. The question of what it means to be human is now inextricable from the question of who we are to each other. We have riches of knowledge and insight, of tools both tangible and spiritual, to rise to this calling. We watch our technologies becoming more intelligent, and speculate imaginatively about their potential to become conscious. All the while, we have it in us to become wise. Wisdom leavens intelligences, and ennobles consciousness, and advances evolution itself."
She speaks of the inquiry into the nature of "soul" or "spirit" as leading "organically, along straight or meandering paths, into the roots of the curiosity that becomes, in adulthood, passion and vocation."
In one conversation, she discusses "generous listening," which itself is "powered by curiosity. . . . It involves a kind of vulnerability—a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity." Generous listening, she says, yields better questions—because, contrary to what we learn in school, there is such a thing as a bad question. "It's hard to meet a simplistic question with anything but a simplistic answer. It's hard to transcend a combative question. But it's hard to resist a generous question. We all have it in us to formulate questions that invite honesty, dignity, and revelation. There is something redemptive and life-giving about asking a better question." Surely, Tippett herself epitomizes generous listening. When she needs to "hold" a question, turn it over in her mind, dwell on it, she's not afraid to do so.
"The crack in the middle where people on both sides absolutely refuse to see the other as evil—this is where I want to live and what I want to widen."
"We are matter, kindred with ocean and tree and sky. We are flesh and blood and bone. To sink into that is a relief, a homecoming. Mind and spirit are as physical as they are mental. The line we'd drawn between them was whimsy, borne of the limits of our understanding. Emotions and memories, from despair to gladness, root in our bodies. . . . Our bodies are longing and joy and fear and a lifelong desire to be safe and loved, incarnate."
"If we are stretching to live wiser and not just smarter, we will aspire to learn what love means, how it arises and deepens, how it withers and revives, what it looks like as a private good but also a common good. I long to make this word echo differently in hearts and ears—not less complicated, but differently so. Love as muscular, resilient. Love as social—not just about how we are intimately, but how we are together, in public. I want to aspire to a carnal practical love—eros become civic, not sexual and yet passionate, full-bodied. Because it is the best of which we are capable, loving is also supremely exacting, not always but again and again. Love is something we only master in moments. It crosses the chasms between us, and likewise brings them into relief. It is as captive to the human condition as anything we attempt."
Oh, and there's so much more: about compassion, about allowing our hearts to be educated in relationship with others, about paradise being right in front of us, about mystery (which "lands in us as a humbling fullness of reality we cannot sum up or pin down"), about befriending reality in all its beauty and pain, about hope and truth.
She ends: "We are so achingly frail and powerful all at once, in this adolescence of our species. But I have seen that wisdom emerges precisely through those moments when we have to hold seemingly opposing realities in a creative tension and interplay: power and frailty, birth and death, pain and hope, beauty and brokenness, mystery and conviction, calm and buoyancy, mine and yours. . . . The mystery and art of living are as grand as the sweep of a lifetime and the lifetime of a species. And they are as close as beginning, quietly, to mine whatever grace and beauty, whatever healing and attentiveness, are possible in this moment and the next and the next one after that."
May 10, 2017
Krista Tippett is the host of the podcast On Being and as such has the chance to interview hundreds of physicists, spiritual leaders, thinkers, activists and more on how they grapple with meaning in the world.
In Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living, she narrows her focus on words, flesh, love, faith and hope and dips in and out of a wellspring of past interviews. She’s a practiced interviewer playing host to some incredibly smart folks.
The language is dense and prescriptive and is made for thoughtful contemplation not the aggressive consumption of my usual fare. You simply can’t chug through Rilke like you’re reading Rowling. I found myself tripping over the flowery optimism of the language. Still, I appreciate the exploration of ideas like how love demands effort and we should fight against its cheapening by appending it to Fridays, ice cream and “these shoes!” How faith is just as important to the atheist, and that science and religion need not be mutually exclusive. It’s just that when epiphanies are had on every page they tend to overlap and congeal diminishing their impact for me.
In Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living, she narrows her focus on words, flesh, love, faith and hope and dips in and out of a wellspring of past interviews. She’s a practiced interviewer playing host to some incredibly smart folks.
The language is dense and prescriptive and is made for thoughtful contemplation not the aggressive consumption of my usual fare. You simply can’t chug through Rilke like you’re reading Rowling. I found myself tripping over the flowery optimism of the language. Still, I appreciate the exploration of ideas like how love demands effort and we should fight against its cheapening by appending it to Fridays, ice cream and “these shoes!” How faith is just as important to the atheist, and that science and religion need not be mutually exclusive. It’s just that when epiphanies are had on every page they tend to overlap and congeal diminishing their impact for me.
August 26, 2019
Three years ago I read 30% of this book and felt I was not grasping it. This time I listened to the audiobook narrated by the author. There are many clips of interviews she did with wise people. This time I did understand and enjoyed the book immensely. It seems like such a wonderful resource of so much good thinking. I bought the ebook after listening to the audio, because there is so much that I want to follow up on. This book encouraged me to keep being the best me that I can be. So many wise people are saying that we need to keep hope alive. Doing the small part that we have before us especially in kindness is more important than we realize. That is just one aspect of the wisdom in this book, but it is what impressed me the most. I'm eager to read in print and look more into some of these people. I enjoy Krista Tippett's OnBeing podcast and fantastic website.
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November 20, 2017This book is exquisite. It reads like sacred text. I found the chapters on “Words”, “Love” and “Hope” particularly wondrous. Krista Tippett shares so generously and thoughtfully insights and wisdom gained from conversation partners over a period of 12 years. This is a book I want to carry with me wherever I go and meditate on its wisdom daily.
November 13, 2016
A beautiful collection of some of her most poignant interviews over the years, woven together with her own wisdom. A rare book that I believe would be better in audio (as you hear the actual interviews rather than read the transcript). Update: Re-reading in print was wonderful, since I could underline passage after passage. If I had to choose one way, I would probably go with print, because there is so much of beauty to note here. :)
May 27, 2017
Non-spiritual person that I am, I have always loved Krista Tippett's gentle, thoughtful tone and positive, respectful, interdisciplinary approach. Audio, of course.
June 16, 2024
Started a whole notes section in my phone for quotes from this book. I love Krista Tippett and her wisdom in her podcasts and this book was just that. Interviews and perspectives on wisdom, love, faith, hope etc. Emphasis on the both/and of life itself.
QOTB: “I’m glad for the language of resilience that has entered the twenty-first century lexicon, from urban planning to mental health. Resilience is a successor to mere progress, a companion to sustainability. It acknowledges from the outset that things will go wrong. All of our sol-tons will eventually ourlive their usefulness. We will make messes, and disruption we do not cause or predict will land on us. This is the drama of being alive. To nurture a resilient human being, or a resilient city, is to build in an expectation of adversity, a capacity for inevitable vulnerability. As a word and as a strategy, resilience honors the unromantic reality of who we are and how we are, and so becomes a refreshingly practical compass for the systems and societies we can craft. It's a shift from wish-based optimism to reality-based hope. It is akin to meaningful, sustained happiness not dependent on a state of perfection or permanent satisfaction, not an emotional response to circumstances of the moment, but a way of being that can meet the range of emotions and experiences, light and dark, that add up to a life. Resilience is at once proactive, pragmatic, and humble. It knows it needs others. It doesn't overcome failure so much as transmute it, integrating it into the reality that evolves.”
QOTB: “I’m glad for the language of resilience that has entered the twenty-first century lexicon, from urban planning to mental health. Resilience is a successor to mere progress, a companion to sustainability. It acknowledges from the outset that things will go wrong. All of our sol-tons will eventually ourlive their usefulness. We will make messes, and disruption we do not cause or predict will land on us. This is the drama of being alive. To nurture a resilient human being, or a resilient city, is to build in an expectation of adversity, a capacity for inevitable vulnerability. As a word and as a strategy, resilience honors the unromantic reality of who we are and how we are, and so becomes a refreshingly practical compass for the systems and societies we can craft. It's a shift from wish-based optimism to reality-based hope. It is akin to meaningful, sustained happiness not dependent on a state of perfection or permanent satisfaction, not an emotional response to circumstances of the moment, but a way of being that can meet the range of emotions and experiences, light and dark, that add up to a life. Resilience is at once proactive, pragmatic, and humble. It knows it needs others. It doesn't overcome failure so much as transmute it, integrating it into the reality that evolves.”
June 10, 2017
I loved some things about this book and hated others. What I disliked about it was that it was very disorganized. The author loosely organized her thoughts into chapters (Words, Flesh, Love, Faith, Hope), but within the chapters, the material was very random and hard to follow. Too many disorganized ideas all piled together in no discernable order or pattern.
Now for what I loved about it: so many interesting and thought-provoking ideas, on the general topic of the meaning of our human life! I especially enjoyed the chapter on Love, which was the least-disorganized chapter, too, and really focused in on the "beloved community" aspect of the Civil Rights movement. I took many notes and copied many quotes from this book (which was borrowed from the library) and will be thinking about it for a long time.
Like my reviews?
Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/
Now for what I loved about it: so many interesting and thought-provoking ideas, on the general topic of the meaning of our human life! I especially enjoyed the chapter on Love, which was the least-disorganized chapter, too, and really focused in on the "beloved community" aspect of the Civil Rights movement. I took many notes and copied many quotes from this book (which was borrowed from the library) and will be thinking about it for a long time.
Like my reviews?
Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/
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May 17, 2017How many books have I read in my life? Thousands?
And "Becoming Wise" is up there as one of the best.
Tippett writes:
"Spiritual humility is not about getting small, not about debasing oneself, but about approaching everything and everyone with a readiness to see goodness and be surprised. This is the humility of a child, which Jesus lauded. It is the humility of the scientist and the mystic. It has a lightness of step, not a heaviness of heart."
And that is what this book feels like. Read it.
And "Becoming Wise" is up there as one of the best.
Tippett writes:
"Spiritual humility is not about getting small, not about debasing oneself, but about approaching everything and everyone with a readiness to see goodness and be surprised. This is the humility of a child, which Jesus lauded. It is the humility of the scientist and the mystic. It has a lightness of step, not a heaviness of heart."
And that is what this book feels like. Read it.
September 1, 2017
Love her show on NPR, but this book did not have a comparable narrative drive or strong sense of organizing thought. Some lovely quotes from her interviews make this a good book to scan for the jewels.
I stopped on page 81.
I stopped on page 81.
November 7, 2019
If you listen to on being, there won’t be much in here that is new, but it’s still nice to listen to the bits of wisdom all in one place
July 12, 2024
I love Krista Tippett and the conversations and people she has brought to light through On Being and in this book! I love to way she speaks about faith, community and hope in general.
“So I think one of the ways that we know that our spiritual inclinations are valid is that they lead us out of ourselves.”
“Grief, if you are afraid of it and pave it over, clamp it down- it shuts you down. And the kind of apathy and closed-down denial, or difficulty in looking at what we’re doing to our world, stems not from callous indifference or ignorance so much as it stems from fear of pain.
When we look at it, when we take it in our hands, when we can just be with it and keep breathing, then it turns. It turns to reveal its other face. And the other face of our pain for the world is our love for the world, our absolutely inseparable connectedness with all of life. “
“Spirituality doesn’t look like sitting down and meditating. Spirituality looks like folding towels in a sweet way and talking kindly to the people in your family even though you’ve had a long day. People often say to me “I don’t have time to take up a spiritual practice.” And the thing is, being a wise parent or a spiritual parent doesn’t take extra time. It’s enfolded into the act of parenting.”
“The person who is in love with the vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go.”
“I can disagree with your opinion, it turns out, but I can’t disagree with your experience. And once I have a sense of your experience, you and I are in a relationship, acknowledging the complexity in each others positions, listening less guardedly. The differences in our opinions will probably remain intact, but it no longer defines what is possible between us.”
“So I think one of the ways that we know that our spiritual inclinations are valid is that they lead us out of ourselves.”
“Grief, if you are afraid of it and pave it over, clamp it down- it shuts you down. And the kind of apathy and closed-down denial, or difficulty in looking at what we’re doing to our world, stems not from callous indifference or ignorance so much as it stems from fear of pain.
When we look at it, when we take it in our hands, when we can just be with it and keep breathing, then it turns. It turns to reveal its other face. And the other face of our pain for the world is our love for the world, our absolutely inseparable connectedness with all of life. “
“Spirituality doesn’t look like sitting down and meditating. Spirituality looks like folding towels in a sweet way and talking kindly to the people in your family even though you’ve had a long day. People often say to me “I don’t have time to take up a spiritual practice.” And the thing is, being a wise parent or a spiritual parent doesn’t take extra time. It’s enfolded into the act of parenting.”
“The person who is in love with the vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go.”
“I can disagree with your opinion, it turns out, but I can’t disagree with your experience. And once I have a sense of your experience, you and I are in a relationship, acknowledging the complexity in each others positions, listening less guardedly. The differences in our opinions will probably remain intact, but it no longer defines what is possible between us.”
June 30, 2025
This is a collection of interviews curated into a few topical areas. It was published in 2016 and I read it in 2025. So, a lot of water under the bridge for many of the people interviewed and for KT, too.
I connected with bits of it, but overall it feels like “things I know already” or somehow not “fresh” in the post-pandemic and T2 world.
I suppose I should be less fussy and appreciate the many little nuggets of beauty and wisdom I did find.
This one by Christian Wiman spoke to me: “…one of the ways that we know our spiritual inclinations are valid is that they lead us out of ourselves.”
I connected with bits of it, but overall it feels like “things I know already” or somehow not “fresh” in the post-pandemic and T2 world.
I suppose I should be less fussy and appreciate the many little nuggets of beauty and wisdom I did find.
This one by Christian Wiman spoke to me: “…one of the ways that we know our spiritual inclinations are valid is that they lead us out of ourselves.”
February 2, 2024
Just endlessly makes you ruminate on the meaning of life, love, and all of the big spiritual and philosophical thoughts in between.
February 24, 2025
Krista Tippett is a journalist.
"The discourse of our common life inclines towards despair. In my field of journalism, where we presume to write the first draft of history, we summon our deepest critical capacities for investigating what is inadequate, corrupt, catastrophic, and failing. The “news” is defined as the extraordinary events of the day, but it is most often translated as the extraordinarily terrible events of the day."
Let's switch that idea around, she suggests. Let's talk to people and see what wisdom they can share with us.
That's what Tippett does in this book. She has sifted through hundreds of conversations she has had with people and she's shared the parts that touch on wisdom.
Here's one example from a conversation Tippett has with physician Rachel Naomi Ramen. Ramen tells Tippett a story her grandfather, a rabbi, shared with her when she was a child.
"In the beginning there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. In the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. And then, perhaps because this is a Jewish story, there was an accident, and the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. The wholeness of the world, the light of the world, was scattered into a thousand thousand fragments of light. And they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day. Now, according to my grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world. It’s a very important story for our times. This task is called tikkun olam in Hebrew. It’s the restoration of the world."
"The discourse of our common life inclines towards despair. In my field of journalism, where we presume to write the first draft of history, we summon our deepest critical capacities for investigating what is inadequate, corrupt, catastrophic, and failing. The “news” is defined as the extraordinary events of the day, but it is most often translated as the extraordinarily terrible events of the day."
Let's switch that idea around, she suggests. Let's talk to people and see what wisdom they can share with us.
That's what Tippett does in this book. She has sifted through hundreds of conversations she has had with people and she's shared the parts that touch on wisdom.
Here's one example from a conversation Tippett has with physician Rachel Naomi Ramen. Ramen tells Tippett a story her grandfather, a rabbi, shared with her when she was a child.
"In the beginning there was only the holy darkness, the Ein Sof, the source of life. In the course of history, at a moment in time, this world, the world of a thousand thousand things, emerged from the heart of the holy darkness as a great ray of light. And then, perhaps because this is a Jewish story, there was an accident, and the vessels containing the light of the world, the wholeness of the world, broke. The wholeness of the world, the light of the world, was scattered into a thousand thousand fragments of light. And they fell into all events and all people, where they remain deeply hidden until this very day. Now, according to my grandfather, the whole human race is a response to this accident. We are here because we are born with the capacity to find the hidden light in all events and all people, to lift it up and make it visible once again and thereby to restore the innate wholeness of the world. It’s a very important story for our times. This task is called tikkun olam in Hebrew. It’s the restoration of the world."
June 21, 2016
Challenging and thought provoking, Krista Tippett weaves together portions of interviews/talks with scientists, theologians, activists, and people passionate about life with her own musings. Liked the audiobook so well I'm purchasing the book. I think that I'll gain being able to underline important ideas and take notes better with a print copy, but I'll miss out on hearing the voices of her guests. Brene Brown's hesitation in answering Kirsta's question about what was on her list of negative traits and then her answer was a perfect example of being vulnerable. Not sure that impact will come through in a print edition. Perfect book for anyone who wants to live a better life, to have hope for humanity. Highly recommended!
December 4, 2016
The excerpts from interviews were interesting, but most of the book is her commentary stringing them together.
February 28, 2023
Would recommend listening to it - she uses the audio recordings of podcast interviews…fun to hear their voices, inflections, etc. ☺️
January 7, 2018
I love the On Being radio show; I sometimes listen to missed shows via podcast. I thought this book would distill what the author learned from her hundreds of interviews. Maybe it did, but I found it hard to keep reading. There were gems inside, but, as a whole, the writing felt scattered. Favorite parts were learning about the author's Baptist background, her time in Berlin, and her mention of and thanks to the Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis. This book was chosen for my congregation to read together; I look forward to our conversations about it.
July 21, 2023
sometimes a book comes into my life at exactly the right time and i am fully receptive to all it has to offer. tippett creates such a thought provoking and profound exploration of how we can live in a kinder, connected, and intentional way. while the end fell a bit short for me, the rest of the book is spent meandering through striking conversations, tangents, and personal stories that i was captivated by.
a book that one has to be open to but if you are, you'll greatly enjoy it
a book that one has to be open to but if you are, you'll greatly enjoy it
June 7, 2017
This is a wonderful audio book! Listening to the voices of those interviewed by Krista Tippett is a real gift. Although not every person resonated with me I found so much to love and think about in this book. I may buy a paper copy to reference and use as a guide to further reading.
March 13, 2019
A lovely, thoughtful book by a lovely, thoughtful person. And firmly in the “some books are better as audiobooks” camp.
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