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: Worthwhile reading
Summary: 4 Stars
I found the storytelling to be the most powerful part of the text as the images invoked are stong enough to carry though my day like a dream, yet I can go back and revisit this dream and build stronger meaning. There does appear to be agap between the spiritual and the practical here, but as a source of inspiration to continue to infuse one's heart into one's work, it does the job better than any other.Book Review: My one indispensible business book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the book for you, if you feel like you are losing your soul in the midst of the dark Corporate wood. If you've ever been asked to fire someone who was doing a good job, or if your knee-jerk response to your boss is 'yes' and that still bothers you, read 'The Heart Aroused'. If you agree with, "Work almost always becomes a platform for self-righteous moralizing. So much is at stake...", read 'The Heart Aroused'. If you have inspirational posters from Hallmark or the Franklin Planner folks on your office walls, it's probably too late to read this book. I'm sorry, but you've already lost your soul.Book Review: A Wonderful and Inspiring Book
Summary: 5 Stars
The author had a very interesting and insightful interview on Public Radio which prompted me to purchase and read this book. I run a small software company; the exertion definitely affects the perspective of meaning in my life. Whyte's book has been very helpful to me in sorting out how important an influence work has on one's soul.It seems to me that our understanding of meaning (insert satisfaction, growth, personal development, reward, or any other value...) is too often clouded by a confusion of the importance our careers have in manifesting what we are and who we want to be.
Whyte does us a service by sharing with us the value of a broad, soul-searching quest -- through our work -- using poetry. Through repetition of references to Beowolf and other poems, he uses marvelous, concise prose to describe what the soul really needs: meaning through spriritual struggle by nurturing deep feelings of self-doubt. We must lose our way in order to find ourselves; there is no other way to awaken.
Unfortunately, I cannot summarize how one awakes to find himself or herself through the focused life-long energy expended in careers. Whyte's book illustrates a number of paradoxes that should be examined.
If your soul is in need of sustenance, this wonderful book will nourish. I highly recommend it. It is one of the very few non-technical books I keep in my office.
Book Review: Review, "The Heart Aroused."
Summary: 4 Stars
An excellent book seeking to explain the nature of the link between a person's creativity and their work. That the two must be maintained in an equilibrium, each nourishing the other, if either is to become a quality experience leading to a quality product. The nature of the dilemma he describes might have been less obscure had he called it a conflict between honor and selfrespect. The term "Honor" (External)describing the various benefits that accrue from work and the term "Self Respect" (Internal) describing how we feel about ourselves after the compromise and sacrice that are often necessary. At a level below this is the font of our creativity (Sexual energy)welling up from our souls. It is most unusual to read an author who descends to this level, for here are forces that defy direct perception and can only be vaguely perceived through poetic and artistic expression. He also dares to confront the struggle between a persons male and female selves. The story of the shopkeeper in "Taking the Homeward Road," is in itself worth the reading of the book and contains wonderful insight as well as some good advice. The book causes you to look at aspects of yourself you might not have considered and it will open doors that might otherwise go unnoticed.Book Review: This is a wonderful book.
Summary: 5 Stars
The Heart Aroused is a book about the state of the soul in the corporate workplace, written by an English poet. If you've ever wondered "Am I the only one who is miserable here?" or "Do others feel they can't speak the truth?" or "Are others being smothered here as well?", you will love this book. Yes - others feel these things. This book says what no one will articulate: it IS hard to speak the truth (or gain one's own voice) in the corporate workplace, it IS hard to maintain one's integrity and BE oneself, it IS hard to be healthy and happy in this environment. But Whyte does not advocate heading for the hills - he feels the corporate workplace can be transformed (with effort) by more awareness on the part of both management and workers. He DOES see the good points of corporations (as efficiency). He, himself, goes into corporations giving workshops on this subject. He ends by mentioning that we spend most of our waking hours at work, so it is a matter of our health, on every level, how we are able to function, what kind of conditions surround us, and what the goals of the corporation are. As a work of beauty, as a book that reinforces what so many people feel, and as something that provokes thought, I highly recommend this book.