???? Richard Rohr: Falling Upward (2012)

Ein religiöses Buch. Aber was Father Richard Rohr in diesem schmalen Büchlein über die zweite Lebenshälfte zu sagen hat, ist profund und regt zum Nachdenken an.

Gelesen: Februar/März 2020

The soul has many secrets

• „The soul has many secrets. They are only revealed to those who want them, and are never completely forced upon us.” (S. xvii)

We grow more by doing it wrong

• „We grow spiritually much more by doing it wrong than by doing it right.” (S. xxii)

Life situation vs. actual life 

• „Most people confuse their life situation with their actual life.” (S. 19)

The old agenda falls apart 

• „The old agenda shows itself to be insufficient, or even falls apart.” (S. 24)
• Die Neue BWL löst die alte ab, weil sich etwas weiterentwickelt hat und die alte Agenda nicht mehr taugt.
• Seth Godin nennt das Neue die „Connection Economy”. Das ist auch nicht das Ding an sich, aber ein kontrastreiches Bild.
• „We cannot rush the process” – aber wir können stetig an dem Prozess mitarbeiten.

Warum Gott Adam und Eva verboten hat, vom Baum der Erkenntnis zu essen.

• „We ironically need limit situations and boundaries to grow up. A completely open field does not do the job nearly as well or as quickly. Yahweh was creating a good limit situation for Adam and Even when he told them not to eat the apple, fully knowing that they would.” (S. 30f)
• Gott hat den Baum mitten ins Paradies gepflanzt. Natürlich wusste er, was passieren würde. Das Verbot hat den Prozess nur noch beschleunigt.

Sünden können uns lehren 

• „I do not think you should get rid of your sin until you have learned what it has to teach you. Otherwise, it will only return in new forms.” (S. 61)

God’s job description 

• „We have four, often conflicting versions of the life of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. There is not one clear theology of God, Jesus, or history presented, despite our attempt to pretend there is. The only consistent pattern I can find is that all the books of the Bible seem to agree that somehow God is with us and we are not alone. God and Jesus’ only job description is one of constant renewal of bad deals.” (S. 63)

Life is hard

• „Life is hard. We really are our own worst enemy when we deny this.”  (S. 74)

Nature seems to accept major loss

• „Most of nature seems to really accept major loss, gross inefficiency, mass extinctions, and short life spans as the price of life at all.”  (S. 77)
• „Only the human species absents itself from the agreed-on pattern and the general dance of life and death.“

Love only happens in the realm of freedom (S. 79)

• vgl. Lifestyle Entrepreneure: Nur die (finanzielle) Freiheit ermöglicht, dass sie als „Künstler“ ihre beste Arbeit leisten.

In der second half of life, „all is forgiven“ aus der ersten Hälfte (S. 96)

• Seien wir nicht zu streng mit unserem Past Self.
• Wir dürfen los lassen. Das Staffelholz ist übergeben.

„Spirituality is much more about unlearning than learning.“ (S. 99)

• Das könnte auch für das Unternehmersein gelten: Wir müssen nicht so sehr etwas Neues lernen als das wieder verlernen, was uns das Unternehmertum unserer Kindheit ausgetrieben hat.

Second childhood

• Das ist die Heimat des Inneren Kindes in der zweiten Hälfte des Lebens.
• „The entry into heaven is the rediscovery of the still-enchanted world of a happy child, but it now includes the maturing experience of love, unique life journeys, all your elations, and just enough failures to keep you honest and grounded.” (S. 104)
• vgl. Mk 10, 14-15: „Lasst die Kinder zu mir kommen; hindert sie nicht daran! Denn Menschen wie ihnen gehört das Reich Gottes. Amen, das sage ich euch: Wer das Reich Gottes nicht so annimmt, wie ein Kind, der wird nicht hineinkommen.“

Second simplicity 

• „A kind of second simplicity is the very goal of mature adulthood and mature religion.” (S. 108)

Simple and beautiful 

• „Whatever reality is, it would show itself to be both simple and beautiful.” (S. 111)
• Wenn es nicht simple and beautiful ist, dann ist es nicht die Realität/„Wahrheit“
• „Faith in any religion is always somehow saying that God is tone and God is good, and if so, then all of reality must be that simple and beautiful too.“

We need elders! 

• „First-half-of-life naiveté includes a kind of excitement and happiness that is hard to let go of, unless you know there is an even deeper and tested kind of happiness out ahead of you. But you do not know that yet in the early years! Which is why those in the second half of life must tell you about it! Without elders, a society perishes socially and spiritually.” (S. 112)

Give back to the world

• „I am not preoccupied with collecting more goods and services; quite simply, my desire and effort – every day – is to pay back, to give back to the world a bit of what I have received.” (S. 121)

Influence and change people

• „Now we aid and influence other people simply by being who we are.”  (S. 123)
• „Ironically, we are more than ever before in a position [in the second half of life] to change people – but we do not need to – and that makes all the difference.“
• It is no longer a choice – Ich BIN ein Lehrer!

Dalai Lama über Regeln

• „Learn and obey the rules very well, so you will know how to break them properly.” (S. 137)

Neue Freunde

• „Your circle of real confidants and truly close friends will normally grow smaller, but also more intimate. You are no longer surprised or angered when most people – and even most institutions – are doing first-half-of-life tasks. […] Don’t hate them for it.” (S. 137)

Our new question

• „So our question now becomes, ‚How can I honor the legitimate needs of the first half of life, while creating space, vision, time, and grace for the second?” (S. 138)
• Das ist GENAU die Frage, die sich Lifestyle Entrepreneure stellen: Wie kann ich meine materiellen Bedürfnisse absichern und gleichzeitig mir die Freiheiten schaffen, die mir ermöglichen, das zu tun, was ich tun will?
• Das ist auch genau die Frage, die ein Geschäftsmodell beantworten muss – und zwar wirklich überzeugend beantworten!

Jesus spricht über „Zielgruppen” 

• „Even Jesus said that it would be a waste of time to throw our seeds on the busy footpath, the rocky soil, or among the thorns. He told us we should wait for receptive soil (Matthew 13:4-9).” (S. 142)
• Vgl. Seth Godin: Dort hingehen, wo man willkommen ist.

Non-group groups

• Menschen, die in der zweiten Hälfte ihres Lebens sind, erkennen ihresgleichen sehr leicht. Sie erkennen, ob jemand schon den Fluss überquert hat oder noch nicht.
• „Such nongroup groups, the ’two or three’ gathered in deeper truth, create a whole new level of affiliation, dialogue, and friendship, even though they can still enjoy being among their old friends too.” (S. 145)
• Auch echte Lifestyle Entrepreneure haben den Fluss überquert. Echt Lifestyle Entrepreneure erkennen einander. (Es gibt nämlich auch Möchtegern-Lifestyle Entrepreneure.)

Thinkers become feelers

• „Doers become thinkers, feelers become doers, thinkers become feelers, extroverts become introverts, visionaries become practical, and the practical ones long for vision. We all go toward the very places we avoided for the last fourty years, and our friends are amazed.” (S. 149)

What does „serving God” really mean?

• „Now that I have chosen to serve God, what does that really mean?” (S. 150)

Communities form around suffering

• „Failure and suffering are the great equalizers and levelers among humans.” (S. 158)
• „Communities and commitment can form around suffering much more than around how wonderful or superior we are.“
• „There is a strange and even wonderful communion in real human pain.“
• vgl. Fuck-up Nights, Brené Browns Vulnerability-Arbeit, Corona-Krise