THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 17, 1995 TAG: 9505180051
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: BOOK REVIEW
SOURCE: BY JUNE ARNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
WE MEET M. Scott Peck in Paddington Station contemplating why the British train station is so littered. The obvious answer is because there are so few trash cans around. But Peck discards this answer as inadequate.
Within paragraphs, he has convinced us that there is a deeper question here - that the simple answer is just a symptom of our lives in the Age of Reason, a time when a single, rational explanation exists for all that happens.
In his latest book, ``In Search of Stones: A Pilgrimage of Faith, Reason and Discovery'' (Hyperion, 422 pp., $22.95), Peck challenges us to join the exploration as he and his wife, Lily, take to the countryside of England, Wales and Scotland on a quest for ancient megaliths. We quickly find out this is no ordinary travelogue of a three-week vacation. It is a time for contemplation and connections.
Peck is a trusted psychiatrist and guide. He trained many of us in spiritual growth in his book ``The Road Less Traveled.'' He also is the author of ``A World Waiting to be Born,'' ``The Different Drum,'' ``People of the Lie,'' the novel ``A Bed By the Window'' and the fable, ``The Friendly Snowflake.'' Peck's books have spent more than 10 years combined on The New York Times best-seller list. He and his wife, who live in northern Connecticut, are recipients of several awards for peacemaking.
Since childhood, Peck has been aware of the pricetag on his passion for thinking: ``Unfortunately, pain is an inevitable side effect of consciousness. The more aware we are, the more conscious we will become of our sins and imperfections, of our mortality and the aging process working in every cell of our bodies.''
In this book, the 56-year-old Peck shows more of himself than ever before, and some readers are likely to be disillusioned with what they see. He is candid. We see him coming to realizations before our eyes. He tells us he was unfaithful to his wife and used to take illegal drugs; he smokes, battles an addiction to gin, and feels estranged from his children. In some places, he taunts us by revealing snippets of his life, then pulling back and revealing no more.
At Peck's side, we travel through the countryside on a quest for ancient stones that turns contemplative about such notions as reason and romance, acting and art, time and space. Not every reader may share Peck's fascination with stones; some of his insights are trite and at times, he lapses into self-indulgence. He does get us thinking, though, and helps us to see patterns.
A large part of the lesson of ``In Search of Stones'' deals with marriage - with the shared tastes, passions and addictions that make marriage work. He reminds us of the need for flexibility, the need to grow through it and along with it.
He knows the questions to ask: ``Lily and I must lead our own lives, though we're committed to lead them together. But how much together? What should this togetherness look like? Are we striking the right balance between separateness and togetherness? Does the balance need to change as we age? The adventure of our marriage goes on and on.''
Peck recognizes that his strengths in organization are weaknesses when it comes to playing with children - that he didn't flow with his own children's needs as well as Lily did. He also views his children as his greatest source of learning: ``If you seriously want to learn about life, having and raising children is probably the best single way.''
In his most revealing book to date, Peck even describes his participation in two exorcisms. But he lets us know that he does not expect us to believe without having stared into ``the face of the demonic.''
In the end, Peck returns to the idea he shared with us at the start - that anything worth thinking about has more than one cause. He refuses to accept one simple interpretation of the stones that he and Lily have chased for weeks: ``I have no trouble imagining that the megalithic people worshiped their ancestors and the sun and the moon and fertility gods and goddesses - and certain stones to boot. If this sounds like they worshiped almost everything, it would not be out of line with a great deal of religious tradition.''
By example, Peck gives us a way to examine our own lives and seek our own truths. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
In addition to being an author, M. Scott Peck is a psychiatrist and
spiritual guide.
by CNB