Back during my first attempt at free-flight outside the safety net of my (dear) Mother’s religion, one of the first thought-provoking books I picked up was a little pink paperback with a very curious title. The year was 1976. Due to a last-minute decision to switch from an obscure private college in Lincoln Nebraska to a slightly less obscure college in Walla Walla Washington, I lived in an old house nick named The Mark Hopkins with a half-dozen upper classmen. Across the street was an over-stuffed dorm where all my fellow Freshmen engineering students lived. My room was really an attic space above the porch. The steeply-slanted ceiling provided room to stand only along one wall. So I did a lot of sitting, and thinking.
Looking back now, this is where I first explored some some deep and often troubling recesses of my mind. I would title this era of my young life “the Confusions of Existence.”  I don’t know where or how I came across Zen and the art of Motocycle Maintenance, but I’m sure I had no real clue what it was about.

Twenty-three languages and several million copies later, I am now reading the 25th Anniversary Edition. This is several books in one, really. It can and should be read on several levels: most of which I missed in ‘76. Zen-like eastern thinking, mixed with reason and logic combine to provide a distinctly vivid viewport onto understanding. This is so far the most poignant in my recent journey in to book re-reading.

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Filed under: Books, Life