book-review – Ponder Anew

OUTLIERS

September 3, 2025

Good afternoon,

Book number 7 of my Top Ten: Malcolm Galdwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success . The book was written in 2011. It is the most recent book written in my top ten. I think I made the list in 2012, maybe ?

I appreciate Gladwell’s writing style. He is readable as he discusses complex concepts and problems. And I think he is a great storyteller. In Outliers, he tells stories, and then recaps his thesis, and then tells more stories, and then recaps his thesis once again. Here is his final recap near the end of the book:
” It is impossible for a hockey player or Bill Joy or Robert Oppenheimer or any other outlier for that matter, to look down from their lofty perch and say that with truthfulness, ‘ I did this all by myself.’ Superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience. But they don’t. They are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy . Their success is not exceptional or mysterious . It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserve , some not, some earned , some just plain lucky — but all critical to making them who they are. The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all. ” ( page 285 )

Many successful ( and what is success ? ) people state with pride ‘ I am self-made ‘ . This is not true. For tomorrow’s blog, I will name some of the things that I believe have made me a success (?). But how do you measure success, and why does it matter ? Two examples in the book became most quoted by others. Gladwell says you must work 10,000 hours to master some skill. The second one is that most successful hockey players are born in the first three months of any year. I was born in November ,and so I did not have a chance. Ha ha ha !!!

How do you define success ? Is faith related to success at all ? In Christian theology, we are saved by grace, but how we act with all the advantages we have been given is important too.

Praying everyday for women and men of peace and non-violence, to rise up in the world for reconciliation all over the world. AMEN

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ? MPL 2025

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

TOP TEN BOOKS

June 10, 2025

Good afternoon,

( We will be in Winnipeg through June 18th, so I might not be writing a daily reflection for the next week. I will be attending a writers conference on the campus of Canadian Mennonite University. )

A few years ago I was asked to do a 10 minute devotional for a MEDA. It was for their annual Pastors’ breakfast. Besides doing the devotional I handed out a Top Ten of the books that have influenced me. I am going to try in the next year to re-read all of them. I will give a short reflection after finishing them. I wonder if I will see/hear/read them differently. They are in no particular order:

1. Who has seen the Wind W.O. Mitchell .

2. Sideshow William Shawcross

3. Outliers Malcolm Gladwell

4. The Portrait of the Artist by a Young Man James Joyce

5. War Poems Siegfried Sassoon

6. Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky

7. The Politics of Jesus John Howard Yoder

8. The Wounded Healer Henri Nouwen

9. The Sacred Journey Frederick Buechner

10. The Russlander Sandra Birdsell

Sorry, only one woman. Three Canadians. Only one poet. Wendell Berry, Sarah Klassen Bruce Cockburn, Alan Doyle and Mary Oliver might be on the list next time. The oldest book is Crime and Punishment ( 1866 ) that I read in high school. The most recent book is by Gladwell. I will start , with the only book of poetry by Sassoon. What are some of your favourite or most challenging books, Scripture or otherwise ? Do you have a favourite author and why ? Fiction or non-fiction for your reading ? I have five of both on my list. Sorry again for having only one woman, but let me include Mary Oliver too on my list. When I put this list together, the book of Luke was my top biblical book/text, but I am not at the same space as I was then.

” Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind ” Romans 12:2

Peace for all the world. AMEN.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

am I complicit ?

MPL 2025

The same social Merry-go-Round

June 5, 2025

Good afternoon,

I am reading a book called The Road To Wigan Pier by Geroge Orwell. He is famous for the two books of fiction, 1984 and Animal Farm. But this is one of nonfiction. Orwell was a political commentator and a socialist , writing mostly between the world wars. The Road to Wigan Pier is a book about high unemployment in England in the 1930’s . There were many programs for the poor and, and it was similar to today , We have all kinds of social programs to try to keep the poor just enough to be alive. Orwell points out how he was was prejudiced against what he calls the ” lower upper middle class “. They were just limping along, and his family has a bit more money/resources . Then WWII began and many people were employed, and poverty went down. That is another whole soapbox.

We have Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program here in Ontario. No one is going to get rich being on social assistance. It is not a waste of money. The government has built in many other supports for the poor and unemployed, but we have more homeless and housing is at a premium, and not affordable. Food banks are used more than ever. The rich get richer, and the poor and middle class just get by, eking out a life here in Canada, the best place in the whole world ( according to some.). What can and should we do ?

The Old Testament prophets, like Jeremiah, Ezekial and Isaiah rail against inequality but it seems to be always with us. Why can’t we build into the economic systems more sharing possibilities ? We are smart and compassionate. And now we have AI, Artificial Intelligence .We all want a fair and equal society or do we, really ? We are not all the same, and some of us are very skilled, and some of us will need help all of our lives. After thousands of years, we still have not got it right for everyone to flourish.

Praying for a fair, peaceful and equitable life in Gaza.

Fred

black and white shadows

crush humanity’s freedom

Am I complicit ?

MPL