Overview

Following a lifetime rooted in family, schools, culture, and psychotherapy, provoked by the query of a daughter concerning the presence of anxiety in my life, this memoir pursues the presence of anxiety in life and seeks in some context for the concerns with which the author has lived for three-quarters of a century. In the reflections from these situations and influences, he works his way back to stories of personal origin and growth. He has sauntered through persistent issues with which he has been engaged throughout his life, and he has made a few pronouncements, some of which might even ring true. Within these pages, a little wisdom may even be found. And hopefully, with some love and concern, he has responded to the challenging question, ""Do you have anxiety?""

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9781666793352

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Reviews

Brimming with erudition and cultural touchstones, Alan Block's autobiographical work grapples with how to find meaning in the past and how that meaning informs the present and creates the future. It's at once a memoir, a work of literary analysis, and, in its courageous honesty, a rendering of psychotherapeutic revelation. . . . Ultimately, this book tracks the intricate processes of memory and thought in an attentive, compassionate, and singular mind. --David Wasser, clinical psychologist Even if you're not interested in learning the life history of one of the most important curriculum-studies scholars alive today; even if you're not interested in reading about a young man's coming-of-age in 1960s New York City; even if you didn't attend Roanoke College or feed a feral black cat, . . . still you will want to read this book. Why? Because the writing is gorgeous. Sensual, even sumptuous; melodic; meandering; yes, musical. Bravo! --William F. Pinar, University of British Columbia It is wonderful to saunter down paths of anxiety with Alan Block. They disappear under our feet as he first tentatively and then gloriously celebrates his love of the world. He finds it in 'the sacred that inheres in daily life' and in the music, literature, and philosophy that are his culture, not an isolated social or aesthetic practice but a language for feeling that informs his life and this memoir. --Madeleine Grumet, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, emerita

"""Brimming with erudition and cultural touchstones, Alan Block's autobiographical work grapples with how to find meaning in the past and how that meaning informs the present and creates the future. It's at once a memoir, a work of literary analysis, and, in its courageous honesty, a rendering of psychotherapeutic revelation. . . . Ultimately, this book tracks the intricate processes of memory and thought in an attentive, compassionate, and singular mind."" --David Wasser, clinical psychologist ""Even if you're not interested in learning the life history of one of the most important curriculum-studies scholars alive today; even if you're not interested in reading about a young man's coming-of-age in 1960s New York City; even if you didn't attend Roanoke College or feed a feral black cat, . . . still you will want to read this book. Why? Because the writing is gorgeous. Sensual, even sumptuous; melodic; meandering; yes, musical. Bravo!"" --William F. Pinar, University of British Columbia ""It is wonderful to saunter down paths of anxiety with Alan Block. They disappear under our feet as he first tentatively and then gloriously celebrates his love of the world. He finds it in 'the sacred that inheres in daily life' and in the music, literature, and philosophy that are his culture, not an isolated social or aesthetic practice but a language for feeling that informs his life and this memoir."" --Madeleine Grumet, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, emerita"

Author Information

Alan A. Block has taught English for eighteen years in high schools and in the Department of Education for twenty-eight years at the university level. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. He is the author of ten books and dozens of articles and book chapters. He is most proudly the father of two beautiful daughters whose queries provoked the writing of this memoir.

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