Beyond Individual Dreams
Imagine returning from a long workday to your dream home. The things you have strived for have all come true. Yet, there’s a sense of going through the motions. What’s next? Enter – the second mountain.
Relationship is the driver of change — Community is woven through love-drenched accountability.
Introduction
David Brooks begins by exploring the dichotomy of the two mountains. The first mountain is the egotistical, individual worldview, whereas the second mountain is the worldview based on relations, commitments, and desires of the heart.
The first mountain is constructed using the hyper-individualism view, the idea that the journey through life is individual. This idea is highlighted heavily by the viewpoints of social media and how individualistic western society has become.
The problem is that the person in the aesthetic phase sees life as possibilities to be experienced and not projects to be fulfilled or ideas to live out.
The consequences are dire, and it leads the individual to enter a “valley,” leading to discussions of loneliness and distrust.
Hyper-individualism has led to a society where people live further and further apart from one another—socially, emotionally, even physically.
Brooks provides an opposite with the relational mindset to introduce us to the second mountain which breaks down the journey into four main areas.
Area 1: Vocation
Vocation is grounded in what life asks of me and what dives ds heart after the necessities of survival. A neighbor to vocation is a career that answers the question of how you survive and what pays the bills. The vocation view dives deeper into other areas, such as mentorship and mastery, to sanctify it to sanctify it.
“The more creative the activity is, the more structured the work routine should probably be.”
Area 2: Marriage
Marriage is becoming a team of two where you allow someone else to be both the person you seek approval from and also hurt most deeply by your sins. It’s the person you’ll talk to the rest of your life, so Brooks heavily highlights making sure it’s someone you enjoy having conversations with for a long, long time. These ideas were reinforced with words from other authors I’ve read such as Dr. John Gottman.
“The quality of conversation is the quality of marriage”
Area 3: Philosophy & Faith
Philosophy & Faith is broken down into intellectual and religious commitments. Brooks has a Jewish background so there were many parallels discussed with my background of Catholicism. He, like I, had many questions and the thought-analysis led to a similar sense of wandering and questioning of the purpose of religion vs faith. He reinforces these thoughts with notes from other well-known authors such as Viktor Frankl, author of “Man’s Search for Meaning.”
“The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see.”
Area 4: Community
Community is discussed with interdependence. How do you build a community from the ground up? What does it signify to have a strongly connected community? These questions are some of many answered in the stages of community building and the relational manifesto.
“The community we build is more important than building the homes,” he says. “We’re big on energy. The fact that you can build a wall with someone that you’ve never met before creates an instant bond. It’s not work for me
Conclusion
The book concludes with a final high-level view of the main concepts with numbered bullets that were covered to get the main points across.
Rating
Organization: 4 / 5 - many short chapters, introduced well and concluded with main ideas
Relevance: 5 / 5 – especially as more of the world becomes online and individualistic, this viewpoint is refreshing to have.
Enjoyment: 3 / 5 - some stories tended to drag on, especially in the religion section.
Overall, this book was a 4-star book. The main idea was very enticing, but there were some snooze chapters, especially in the philosophy & faith section.
