The Best Spiritual Writing 1999 - Softcover

Most contemporary readers agree that the best spiritual writing stays grounded in real-life anecdotes, simple and bold language, and a self-scrutinizing honesty that gives a narrator credibility. With only a few esoteric exceptions, every piece in this anthology edited by Philip Zaleski (senior editor of Parabola magazine) passes this litmus test. When Michael Ventura speaks of finding the "Old One" within himself on his 52nd birthday, his practical wisdom is mesmerizing: "I've learned to leave birthdays unplanned, or almost so, to let the day unfold on its own, because a birthday is a teaching day it has something to reveal.... This is especially true of birthdays, for, as Thomas Hardy once observed, your birthday exists in relation to another day, a day that is impossible to know: we pass silently, every year, over the anniversary of our death."

In one of the most stunning essays in the collection, "Can You Say...Hero?" (originally published in Esquire), journalist Tom Junod speaks of following Fred Rogers around New York City in order to write a profile, and how "Mr. Rogers" gently found his way to Junod's most vulnerable place of spiritual doubt. Contributions from Mary Gordon, Barry Lopez, and Louise Rafkin are also superb. --Gail Hudson