The Long Loneliness
up:: Books
- Type:biographical
- Author:: Dorothy Day
- Year published:: 1952
Recommended by John Mark Comer in the Live No Lies Podcast episode with David Brooks.
Reflection/Review
This read was a bit of a curve ball when compared to my ususal reading habits: a catholic socialist activist in the first half of the 20th century. Reading outside my denomination and time was a bit cumbersome at times but also valuable.
Especially the concept of “voluntary poverty” was intriguing. While I rely on God’s provision more conciously that many others, I still very much think that poverty is bad and to be avoided. Thinking that the ‘rat race’ of having enough money can be willingly abandoned is both a challenge and a relief.
Dorothy Day’s personal dedication to the poor and suffering is a welcomed challenge to my tendency to view poverty as an ‘issue’ and loose sight of the people.
Notes
When I was a child, my sister and I kept notebooks; recording happiness made it last longer, we felt, and recording stories dramatized it and took away its bitterness; and often we settled some problem which best us, even while we wrote about it. page 115
”voluntary poverty"
"We need to make the kind of society where it is easier for people to be good.”