A Life of Dialogue: Love Letters to My Daughter

In A Life of Dialogue: Love Letters to My Daughters, one finds an honest, unflinching, and authentic voice that creates a unique outlook on multiple sclerosis. Kramer juxtaposes the quest for spiritual awakening with hiding from the effects of his MS. In so doing, he offers poignant insights into living with an illness that is even now too little understood. Composed of short autobiographical letters to his two daughters, Kramer gracefully connects the personal with the universal, and the devastating emotions of MS with the unfinished joys of parenting--each bringing glimpses of new light. His spirituality informs seemingly mundane interactions with a refreshing candor. Turning toward others, trusting what is given, and responding openly, led him to becoming uniquely human in each interaction. This book is written in an uplifting and surprising way. It finds essential humanity through documenting triumphs within a life of ever-narrowing confines.

Kenneth Paul Kramer is a Professor emeritus of Comparative Religious Studies at San Jose (CA) State University. He has published Learning Through Dialogue: The Relevance of Martin Buber's Classroom (2013), Martin Buber's Spirituality: Hasidic Wisdom for Everyday Life (2012), Redeeming Time: T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets" (2007), Martin Buber's "I and Thou" Practicing Living Dialogue (2003); he also edited Dialogically Speaking: Maurice Friedman's Interdisciplinary Humanism (2011).