The Heart Aroused : Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America by David Whyte Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Heart Aroused : Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America
Book Review: In My Mind: A Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is already on the way to becoming a well known classic now but I first encountered it in a very private and personal way at a crucial time in my life when it first appeared a few years ago. I felt very thankful then that someone had been able to speak to the hidden qualities of my work life and set me on more of a courageous path as a result. Having just reread it I realize now why it had such a profound effect on me: The Heart Aroused really does speak to a person whatever threshold of life they might find themselves on. A hearty recommendation then to anyone wondering about the hopes raised by the title, it more than fullfils its promise.Book Review: "What profit a man...."
Summary: 5 Stars
Frankly, I found this to be an especially demanding book even when reading it for a second time. Whyte requires of his reader a rigorous as well as truthful self-exploration, and in ways and to an extent few other authors do. As is so often true in other dimensions of human experience, the benefits derived from reading his book are almost wholly dependent upon how much is personally invested in it. As Whyte explains, he wrote this book "hoping it would be read in two ways. First, as a good story about the difficulties and dramas of preserving the soul at work -- in short, a page-turner; second, as a book that could be studied, contemplated, and discussed with others." More than 50 years ago, Mortimer Adler affirmed the value of reading the "great books" because they stimulate and enrich what he called "a conversation across the centuries." I think this is what Whyte has in mind when providing, in the book's final section (a "User's Guide"), a number of thoughts for reflection and discussion as well as for self-questioning. For example: "What is my heart's desire in life? What are some of the particularities of the way I like to live? What are the essential qualities that give me a sense of belonging? How can work be a good servant to my essential nature instead of a taskmaster?" As I now reflect on this book after a second reading, I think its greatest value lies not only in the truth of what Whyte expresses so eloquently but also in what his assertions and questions require his readers to consider as they seek spiritual fulfillment in their own lives. Those who my high regard for this book are urged to read Whyte's other books, especially Crossing the Unknown: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity and Fire in the Earth; also, to check out David Maister's Practice What You Preach and Tim Sanders' Love Is the Killer App as well as Eliyahu M. Goldratt's The Goal, Critical Acclaim, and It's Not Luck.Book Review: Lessons on Life and Work
Summary: 4 Stars
David Whyte is a fine writer and this book is a noteworthy contribution to the literature on how to bring creativity and soul not only into the corporate world, but into each of our lives. He works hard at underscoring the symbolic importance of his literary references to Beowulf, Coleridge and Eliot, among others, and writes for readers who might not otherwise be poetically inclined. A Heart Aroused argues very simply that each of us owe it to ourselves to bring courage and passion into our work and into our lives. If we cannot embrace the job with passion, perhaps we are in the wrong job. He discusses the fear and voicelessness that so often dominate tough corporate environments, and the troubling compromises that each of us make as we struggle to balance many pressures and demands. When these compromises become too severe, he argues, we begin to slip into a comatose mode of life and lose our edge and our passion for quality and good service. But this is not an easy issue -- some will be tempted to counter that practical concerns are not easily set aside when family and career are at stake. Many a corporate person battens down the hatches and seeks to weather the storms below deck rather than experience the exhileration of being fully engaged in overcoming crises and challenges, when failure can lead to such devastating results. Quite frankly, there are times and situations when we are not welcomed by those in power to engage these challenges. The goal of all good managers and CEOs, Whyte is saying, is to turn their companies into soul friendly environments, for only then will their employees and their products reach their full potential. To not heed the soul, Whyte argues, is even more dangerous than risking the ire of power, because then, rather than being killed despite our best efforts, we kill ourselves and become passive victims rather than actors in the drama. A beginning to an important discussion, but not as concrete as it could be on managing such abstract ideas in our every day world. What he is saying, in an eloquent way, is that we must each be true to our souls, to ourselves, if we are ever to experience true joy in our work and our lives. Not a new idea, but one thoughtfully put forward here.Book Review: Mid-life and the crisis of work that has become unbearable
Summary: 5 Stars
David Whyte's soulful stories and poetry have opened up to me much of troubled me about my relationship to work and the other things in life that matter. One of his stories, that of a shop keeper who upon finding a dead body lying across the door to his shop one morning is my story.
The dead body is a metaphor for himself in his younger years, dead to what really matters in life. He flees, leaving his wife and family to take up work as the servant of a wise man. (again a metaphor for those of us who devote most of our time and energy to work and career and pay little attention to our loved ones.)
Twenty years later in mid-life he can't stand the separation any more and asking for his wages (takes an offer and early retirement) heads out to return to his family.
After paying an enormous sum to his former master for advice that seems cliched, he finds that this advice is life saving on his journey home.
Each piece of advice relates to the path we need to take to return to a healthy life after years of selling our souls to the corporate world and creating a life that we can barely stand to return to day in and day out.
Book Review: Poetry and Transformation
Summary: 5 Stars
David Whyte, in The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America, writes that "If there is one common experience of complexity in the workplace, it would be the experience of feeling lost... in the difficulty of a situation or in our very arrogance or nervousness over a problem." Whyte was encouraged as a resource to business by Peter Block--a trainer, organization consultant, and author of The Empowered Manager--because the powerful images available in poetry can be liberating in the workplace. As a lover of poetry, I was delighted when a client gave me tickets for one of Whyte's workshops a few years ago. One of the poems that Whyte recited for us (and cites in his book) is a teaching tale in the Native American tradition by David Wagoner. It was a thrilling personal experience to hear in Whyte's resounding and dramatic voice Wagoner's response to the question, "What do I do when I am lost in the forest?" (shown in part below):
Stand still, the trees ahead / and bushes beside you / are not lost... / Stand still, the forest / knows where you are. / You must let it find you.
Observing Whyte's impact on others in the group (many of them business people) also gave me the courage to use poetry in my development work with business executives, focusing on the symbolic aspects of people's (and organizations') growth potential. David Whyte has done us all a service in demonstrating how powerful poetry can be in "arousing our hearts," in enabling significant personal transformation. I highly recommend his tapes and books of poetry, as well as The Heart Aroused.