Book Notes

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting brief snippets from Randy Frazee's book, "Making Room for Life: Trading Chaotic Lifestyles for Connected Relationships." These will be brief thoughts from the book that I found particularly challenging and thought-provoking.

"We cannot continue to deny that we were created for community and that the present-day linear structure is not meeting the requirements. It is pseudo-community, not real community. We must connect the dots between our lack of community and our declining health." (52)

"Harvard Medical School professor Jacqueline Olds makes the pertinent observation: “America is in the midst of a loneliness epidemic – and the isolation is undermining our health….Our seeming obsession with the most intimate details of strangers lives – as evidenced by the rise of “tell-all” television talk shows – is another manifestation of our isolation. When you lack a circle of people you know well, gossiping about strangers is a way to fill the gap. But it isn’t very interesting.” (52)

"Those of us who live in the suburbs have lost our way through all the fascinating gadgets our minds and money have been able to create – things that have pulled us to and fro and isolated us from each other. But there are signs that this is changing. According to the Trends Research Institute in Rochester, New York, Americans are starting to “de-cocoon” – to come out of the self-sufficient homes they built in the suburbs and return to a connected life.” (53)