Reading Reflections: Bittersweet by Susan Cain
Reflecting on a profound book - turning sorrows into creativity and love.
Bittersweet @susancainauthor
I have contemplated multiple narratives for the caption of this book, and finally decided that really, there isn’t much I could value-add to all the numerous reviews of this book that are already out there in the Universe.
Instead, I’ll just sum it all up – it is a book worth my time, and will be worth yours too. It is so thought-provoking that I believe even those with the least self-awareness would find themselves engaging in personal reflection with the book.
To demonstrate this point, perhaps here’s an illustration:
The Author, Susan Cain suggested that we may have asked ourselves countless times such questions:
“What are my career goals? Do I want marriage and children? Is so-and-so the right partner? How can I be a ‘good’ and moral person? What work should I do? To what extent should my work define me? When should I retire?”
How about these questions?
“What are you longing for? What is the thing you long for most, your unique imprint, singular mission, wordless calling? Where on earth is your closest approximation of home? Literally, if you sat down and wrote “Home” at the top of a piece of paper and waited a while, what would you write next? How [can] you transform your pain into beauty, your longing into belonging?”. Do you even have the courage to hold such a convo with yourself?
The abstract message of the book isn’t presented in isolation but is interwoven with research and established theories. Cain draws on a wide range of sources, including psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and the arts, providing a well-rounded and deeply researched exploration of her subject. Perhaps the only downside in my humble view is the style of writing – at times I find the descriptions of places and people overly detailed, which I believe were meant to paint a vivid pic of the situation in the mind’s eyes of the readers, but for someone who doesn’t like fictions, this style makes it a tad too heavy for me.
It’s a ‘heavy’ book. Not quite for the faint hearted nor the impatient (I almost gave up). But it’s powerful and transformational in its own way, inspiring readers to turn sorrows into creativity, beauty and love. May it inspire you the same too.
