And Never Stop Dancing: Thirty More True Things You Need to Know Now - Hardcover

Livingston, M.D. Gordon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569243204 ISBN 13: 9781569243206

Publisher: Marlowe & Company, 2006

Synopsis

Dr. Gordon Livingston’s national bestseller, Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart, has drawn tens of thousands of readers who have embraced its thirty bedrock truths about life and how best to live it. Now, in And Never Stop Dancing, Dr. Livingston — a Vietnam War veteran, psychiatrist, and parent twice bereaved — offers thirty more true things we need to know now.

The fresh truths Dr. Livingston explores include: Paradox governs our lives. Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. We are defined by what we fear. As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

Once again, here are Dr. Livingston’s sterling qualities: a deep understanding of the emotional tumult that courses through our lives — our hidden hypocrisies, desires, and evasions; an unerring sense of what is important; and his own ability to persevere — to hope — in a world he knows to be capable of inflicting unjustifiable and lifelong suffering.

These qualities — plus his perfectly pitched sense of humor and a singular voice — add up to another extraordinary book — one which, like its predecessor, offers us a gentle, generous, and unusual alternative to the trial-and-error learning that makes wisdom such an expensive commodity.

About this title

About the Author

Gordon Livingston, MD, a graduate of West Point and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who was awarded the Bronze Star for valor in Vietnam, was a psychiatrist and writer who contributed frequently to the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Baltimore Sun. His books include Only Spring; Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart; And Never Stop Dancing; How to Love; and The Thing You Think You Cannot Do.

Reviews

A physician and psychiatrist, Livingston follows up on his Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart: Thirty True Things You Need to Know Now with this compendium of useful humanistic advice for getting through life with grace and a sense of joy. In "Marriage Ruins a Lot of Good Relationships," the author notes that a relationship is in trouble when it depends on scorekeeping: how much am I giving, how much am I getting? Livingston advocates instead choosing a partner to love as much as we love ourselves, one who is kind and has a willingness to extend him or herself. Livingston also believes too many psychiatrists are prescribing medication rather than helping their patients "take responsibility for [their] lives and cope with the inevitable mood changes that are a part of living." Extrapolating from his ideas about the good life to broader issues, Livingston argues that our need for "insatiable consumption" is directly related to our abuse of the environment and our need to wage war. In "You Can Change Who You Are Without Rejecting Who You Were," Livingston, a West Point graduate, discusses his love for the Point and his growing opposition to the war in Vietnam, where he served as an army doctor. His public protests against interrogation techniques ended his military career. This slender volume is full of wisdom and written with a generous spirit that will appeal even to those who don't usually read self-help books. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Marlowe & Company
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1569243204
• ISBN 13: 9781569243206
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208