Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life.ACEDIA & ME: A MARRIAGE, MONKS, AND A WRITER'S LIFE By Kathleen Norris (Riverhead riv·er·head n. The source of a river. , 2008) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Did you know there used to be eight deadly sins? In the era of the Desert Fathers and Mothers, monks called them "bad thoughts" and included acedia (ah-SEE-dia), later subsumed into "sloth sloth (slōth, slôth), arboreal mammal found in Central and South America distantly related to armadillos and anteaters. Sloths live in tropical forests, where they sleep, eat, and travel through the trees suspended upside down, clinging to ," which eventually empha sized physical, rather than spiritual laziness. Acedia has been defined as absence of care, soul weariness, melancholy, ennui, or despair. The extent to which this concept has been lost is evidenced by the squiggly squig·gle n. A small wiggly mark or scrawl. intr.v. squig·gled, squig·gling, squig·gles 1. To squirm and wriggle. 2. To make squiggles. red line under the word on my computer indicating a misspelling mis·spell·ing n. 1. The act or an instance of spelling incorrectly. 2. A word spelled incorrectly. Noun 1. . But modern-day monastic and bestselling author Kathleen Norris (Dakota, The Cloister cloister, unroofed space forming part of a religious establishment and surrounded by the various buildings or by enclosing walls. Generally, it is provided on all sides with a vaulted passageway consisting of continuous colonnades or arcades opening onto a court. Walk, Amazing Grace), who has struggled with the "noonday demon," perceptively noticed that the rampant boredom, escapism es·cap·ism n. The tendency to escape from daily reality or routine by indulging in daydreaming, fantasy, or entertainment. , and commitmentphobia afflicting af·flict tr.v. af·flict·ed, af·flict·ing, af·flicts To inflict grievous physical or mental suffering on. [Middle English afflighten, from afflight, individuals and society today may be a reincarnation of the ancient curse. In Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life, Norris tells the story of her own personal struggle with spiritual fatigue, interspersed with wisdom about acedia from sages ancient and modern. She surmises it has dogged her since her socially awkward teenage years, throughout her vocation as a poet, and during her marriage, especially as she served as caregiver to her ill husband in the last years of his life. Throughout the book, she carefully treads on the topic of the differences between acedia and its clinical cousin, depression. Her late husband suffered from the latter and, like many, was helped by medication and psychotherapy. Norris, while not discounting the need for medical intervention, wonders if some acedia sufferers have been too pharmaceutically placated. In her case the spiritual treatment of discipline was just the cure. Given this affliction's obscurity, I'm not sure the title Acedia & Me will jump out to spiritual seekers. But Norris' name will: Once again she delivers a poignant, meaningful memoir that combines her own story with the best of Christian tradition. |
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