I love autobiographies. I find them inspiring. I am willing read the entire gamut in this area of literature. I have not always been a big fan of Teddy Kennedy, but his autobiography is in my reading queue. I just completed an autobiography of sorts. Donald Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz, recently released a new work. The title is: A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It is autobiographical for sure, but he writes with the purpose of inspiring those who have given up on life. Here is a summary included in the forward of the book:

Every life is a story. Whether it is a story worth telling or talking about, though, is up to you. People set out with grand dreams of changing the world, falling in love, doing something amazing. But the drift toward the merely acceptable happens almost without notice…

Miller is not very structured in his writing style, and I love it! The key points he is trying to get across are not broken into chapter divisions or in some other kind of neat and tidy list. You just have read, pay attention, and be ready to internalize the golden nuggets of wisdom that he drops along the way. He is the first one:

Humans are designed to seek comfort and order, and so if they have comfort and order, they tend to plant themselves, even if their comfort isn’t all that comfortable. And even if they secretly want for something better…

I found this quote troubling, because unfortunately he is right. It is indeed the drift toward the acceptable. As I approach my 48th birthday, I have become aware of two things going on my life, and in the lives of my close friends. I think across the board we are more humble and pleasant to be around. When I look back at some of the arrogant attitudes I held onto at age 25, it scares me. All of us have had our share of life bumps. Gone are the days of social snobbery that characterized the middle school and high school years. Even the days of feeling compelled to make some kind of materialistic statement have vanished for most of us. We are actually very pleasant to be around these days! We are kinder and more empathetic.

I also think most of us have drifted toward the merely acceptable. It seems to me that it is important to experience a life wake up call, where we can rethink our goals. It is a time to throw caution to the wind and dream again. A time to go back to school, a time to try again, a time to do something we have never done, a time do the hard work of reconciling broken relationships…

Miller’s most recent book has given me the perspective I need to accomplish such objectives. Quite frankly I don’t like some of the things he shares. It is easier just to stay in the familiar comfort zone… But I am going to take his thoughts to heart, because I really do want to travel a million miles in a thousand years. More on Miller’s book in tomorrow’s blog.