Читать книгу Somebody Should Have Told Us!: Simple Truths for Living Well - Jack Pransky - Страница 9

Foreword

Burrell Behavioral Health [the initial publisher of this book] has a long history with Dr. Jack Pransky. In 1991, Jack and Burrell Foundation collaborated to publish Prevention: The Critical Need, a book that has helped many individuals, organizations and communities in their efforts to prevent emotional, behavioral and social problems, and which has been used as a college text in many universities. So it was a natural for us to turn again to Jack as we attempted to expand our endeavors in the arena of producing and publishing resources for life and learning. We were pleased to present Somebody Should Have Told Us! as the inaugural publication of Burrell Resources for Learning (BRL)… This is a powerful book that further extends the notion that there is nothing wrong with you that can’t be fixed by what is right with you.

I spent a lot of time with Somebody Should Have Told Us! I mean, I spent many hours, days, and weeks with this book in the process of trying to be a good editor. I really wanted to give Jack some substantive input that he might use to make the book better…you know, cross-referencing the lessons of the book with ancient wisdom literature, current psychological theory and research, and perhaps an occasional pithy poem or song lyric. But, an interesting thing happened as I lived with the book: I began to realize that the wisdom of the book was infiltrating my thoughts, feelings and conversations... I still had my academic, editorial hat on, but found very often that my energy was being directed into applying the lessons of the book to my own heart and mind, both personally and professionally. It has a way of seeping into your life. It seems to me that this is a sure sign of a great self-help book!

You may find yourself (as I did) at first resisting some of the lessons of Somebody Should Have Told Us!, just because the path it lays out to health and contentment seems too easy, too simple. How simple? I asked Jack for an essential summary, and here is what he said: “This book is about how we all have a state of perfect Health and wisdom inside us that can only be covered up by our own thinking, and how our thinking creates the ‘reality’ we see, out of which we then think, feel and act.” Actually, that sounds about right, if you believe the ancient wisdom expressed in Proverbs: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Or if you believe Shakespeare might have known a thing or two about human nature: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so…”(Hamlet). Maybe it really is just that simple. Yet there is no limit to the depth and power of it. Read this book. Soak it in. Then decide for yourself.

Paul Thomlinson

Burrell Behavioral Health

Springfield, MO

August 2005