Book Reviews (Oct 2008)

Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, New York: Little, Brown & Company 2000. 301 pp    Notes 12 pp.   $14.95

This is an important book in today’s world, where global heating (‘warming’ is an unacceptable euphemism), exhaustion of natural resources, pollution; and the potentials for major wars over dwindling food, water and other necessities of life are threatening the continuation of life as we know it on our planet. No one knows when we might reach a point of no return, a crucial tipping point, in any of these processes – as well as in countless, possibly even unrecognized and unknown other ones.

Malcolm Gladwell discusses various elements that contribute to the development of, transition through, and adaptations to the effects of varieties of tipping points. In a very readable and engaging manner, he takes us through the sudden breakthroughs of awareness in individuals that then spread rapidly through segments of society, sometimes just locally and sometimes globally.

Consider major shifts of consciousness

• In clothing – such as Hush Puppies, the brushed suede shoes that jumped from sales of 30,000 pairs per year in 1994 to 430,000 pairs in 1995: What led this sudden fad to catch on?
• In health – such as the outbreak of syphilis in Baltimore, where cases jumped by 500 percent between 1995-1996: What social changes occurred to cause this many new venereal infections?
• In education – such as “when the number of professionals [in the local community] dropped below 5 percent, the problems explode. For black schoolchildren, for example, as the percentage of high-status workers falls just 2.2 percentage points – from 5.6 percent to 3.4 percent – drop-out rates [from schools] more than double. At the same Tipping Point, the rates of child-bearing for teenaged girls… nearly double.” (p. 13)  What shifts occur in the communal consciousness at that point in time in the social flows of existence?
• In crime – such as the rapid decrease in criminal activity in New York City in the 1990s.

Gladwell hypothesizes that there are three rules which help to understand such tipping points:
1. The Law of the Few: It only takes a small number of people to spark a shift;
2: The Stickiness Factor: Words or concepts that have an impact; and
3: The Power of Context: People are more likely to respond in distinct manners within particular contexts.

Considering the importance of shifting consciousness towards more healing ways of relating to each other and to our planet, these laws suggest that it may be possible to develop the healing memes (conceptual viruses) that could tip global consciousness towards survival rather than suicide of humanity and genocide of most other living organisms on our planet.

Gladwell continues with further suggestions for how the rules can be deliberately activated in creating desired tipping points. Potential contributors to these processes are mavens, who are unusually knowledgeable people with gifts for lateral thinking; connectors, who are people with extensive lists of people who are relevant to given areas of social consciousness and activity; and salespeople, who are gifted at getting the new concepts across to all and sundry.

Gladwell presents another fascinating fact contributing to harmonious communications. People can comfortably and harmoniously communicate with 150 other people in a working or living environment. Within that number, it is possible to know everyone personally. This facilitates mutual understanding and cooperation. Beyond that number, people become anonymous; it is more difficult to understand and trust their intentions and actions; and it is easy for mistrust and disharmony to creep in and wreak havoc.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for anyone considering working towards making positive changes in our world.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD, ABHM
Editor, IJHC

Christina Baldwin.  Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story.  Novato, CA: New World Library, 2005.  237 pp.  Notes 8 pp.  $14.95.

Christina Baldwin, a pioneer in the art of journaling and narrative as methods of self-reflection and observation for personal growth, has written books that have become classics in journal writing, such as One to One: Self-Understanding through Journal Writing and Life’s Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest.  Her fervor for her life’s work is evident in Storycatcher, her most current book. 

It is through story that we define our life.  It is also through story that we are able to make connections, teach ourselves, gain meaning to our lives, leave a legacy, and heal ourselves.  In Storycatcher, Baldwin takes the reader even beyond the role of the self-reflective writer to the role of “storycatcher.”  Storycatchers are those individuals who are aware of the gifts cloaked within the ordinary stories of our everyday lives.  They are those who are inquisitive, empathic, nonjudgmental, and attentive to the narrative, whether it be their own or another’s story.  Through these qualities, a synergy is possible between storyteller and listener, which can build a connectedness that remains long after the story is told.  Whether the story is “caught” orally or on paper, what may have seemed to be an ordinary narration is revealed as a gift through the storycatcher’s ability to ask focused questions and listen actively for the richness beneath the surface.

Although Baldwin takes the reader into aspects of her personal life journey through glimpses of her past experiences, this book is not merely a memoir in the disguise of a guide.  Being a storycatcher herself, Baldwin weaves stories about herself and other people among factual data to illustrate and reinforce the importance of story.  She expands her discussion into brain function as related to language, the history of personal journal writing, and the ability to transform our personal future, as well as those of our community, through story.

The book has three primary premises (p. xii):

• Our perception of our experiences and how they are languaged in our story shapes our lives.
• What is accentuated and brought forward in our collective story determines our relationship in community.
• Our belief in the possibilities of our future world is determined by what we carry on through our larger human story.

These premises are beautifully explored through Baldwin’s gift of storytelling and recognition of insightful experiences in hers and other’s story. 

Storycatcher is more than a narrative of the power of story; it can also be used as a guide to become a storycatcher.  When “catching” our own self-story, the author offers four activities to employ – linking, editing, disorienting, and revisioning. (p. 123)  Linking is gathering the evidence to back up our story.  The significance of linking is that we have the ability to unlink – whether the evidence is reinforcing a strength or a weakness.  Editing is updating our self-identity and how we relate our story.  As we gain new experiences and insights, editing is a necessity.  Disorientation is that uneasiness we feel when progressing through a period of growth.  When questioning our feelings of disorientation, we move into the alchemic process of revisioning, where we modify our story to reflect our growth and build the foundation for moving forward with purpose.

Baldwin contends that, as our personal stories are revised and retold, we become capable of stepping out of our small world into the bigger picture view, recognizing our connections to a larger community.  Through this awareness, we start believing that our personal actions make a difference and we can be of service to others. 

The last half of Storycatchers shares a spectrum of narrativesh: a young African woman who started a learning village to train community leaders; an elderly woman from Arizona healing the heritage of alcoholism in her family; a Danish visionary who works with organizations to recover their purpose; and four clergymen reevaluating their personal beliefs to cultivate a religion of grace. 

By the end of Storycatcher, the reader is drawn into the call to become a storycatcher.  It is a call to become an activist in changing the world through the power of words.  “Story can save us,” (p. 236) declares Baldwin, and the reader is caught up in the movement to preserve the stories of our times so that future generations will know the history that created their world, whether it be private or global.  Baldwin maintains, “[Story] can lift us beyond the borders of our individual lives to imagine realities of other people, other times and places; to empathize with other beings; to extend our supposing far into the universe; to even imagine God.” (p. 63) Her words express the power available through story in breaking down the illusion of separateness that is prevalent in our society and, thus, bring spiritual healing to the world. 

Baldwin writes in a style that reflects a loving, gentle spirit who is able to hear a storyteller’s heart language.  She is an inspirational writer who clearly conveys her passion for story.  She provides questions at the end of each chapter to draw out stories from the readers in their quest to become storycatchers. The back of the book includes a guide for establishing a reading group to cultivate meaningful conversation and writing.

Review by Karla Giminez
Master’s Student
Holos University Graduate Seminary
http://www.HolosUniversity.org