The Choice: Embrace the Possible

I don't write posts about every book I read, just the ones that leave a particularly strong impression. However, The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Dr. Edith Eger almost left too strong of an impression for me to write about it. At first glance it's a self-help book/memoir. One of a million. So, what makes it so poignant? 

Dr. Eger approaches the topic of suffering from a very personal level. As a Holocaust survivor, she knows better than most what it means to go to hell and back again. It's an inspiring tale of courage and perseverance, yet it isn't what makes the piece so much more effective than Night by Elie Wiesel (also a pretty powerful memoir about survival). No, it is her ability to feel for the pains of others that sets her apart. 

 “I also want to say that there is no hierarchy of suffering. There’s nothing that makes my pain worse or better than yours, no graph on which we can plot the relative importance of one sorrow verses another. […] I don’t want you to hear my story and say, ‘My own suffering is less significant.’ I want you to hear my story and say, ‘If she can do it, then so can I!’” 

The last few years have been rough for many, at many different levels. As the first example that Dr. Eger provides, with the dying daughter and wrong-colored Cadillac shows, she truly does believe that if something stands in the way of your happiness, then should be taken seriously, even if others might see it as a trivial bother. Don't look at others to decide how to interpret your feelings. Look at yourself. Fight your demons. Find your happiness.

Just a few more powerful thoughts:

• When we seek revenge, even non-violent revenge, we are revolving, not evolving.
• You can live to avenge the past, or you can live to enrich the present.
• What if the unknown could make us curious instead of gut us with fear? 
• The hardest person to forgive is someone I’ve still to confront: myself.
• We cannot choose to have a life free of hurt. But we can choose to be free, to escape the past, no matter what befalls us, and to embrace the possible.
• We can’t choose to vanish the dark, but we can choose to kindle the light.

Dr. Eger left me with a lot to mull over, a lot to consider, and implement. I wish I had the skill to convey the message I pulled from the text, but it's more of a feeling than a thought. 

 

Thank you, Dr. Eger. You've taught me an important lesson, one that I hope to continue to better understand and learn to implement.

 

Dr. Eger's website: Here