As some books
electrify to the marrow
of the bones,
others, recommended
strongly by timid
souls hiding for
months if not years
in their hideaway
habitats while
proclaiming
ego release and
spiritual awakening
and inner strength,
leave the flesh flaccid
— every last paragraph
of every chapter (a
suggestion for scanning
by a former English
prof.) from first to
last was just all the
same
boring
stuff
with all the banal
self-help sentiments and
jargon wrapped in
superficial Judeo/Christ-
ian, Hindu, Buddhist
and, of course, humanist
pseudo-something
thrown in to appeal
to those slipping
away from forty-three
years of traditional
interpretation of the
doctrines to
enlightened table-talk
with the supposedly
well-educated, academ-
ically credentialed
professionals hiding
in their own hideaway
habitats out of which
they venture on
occasion, particularly
if there is an
audience or, perhaps
even more fashionably, a
soiree of retirees.
bobdahl 
Read this in your book just a few moments ago … had to laugh … painfully true, as I wander the “self-help” section of Barnes and Noble, and check out the “Christian Inspiration” shelves … a mighty thin soup, indeed … holding out to the reader the long-sought-after solution to all of life’s ills … all for only $29.95! If you wait awhile, you can pick it up at Costco for $5 … or at your neighbor’s garage sale for 25 cents.
Reminded me of something I read this morning: George Orwell (1937) contended that British citizens were diverted from solid thinking about socialism because of the number of socialist cranks … “all that dreary tribe of high-minded women and sandal-wearers and bearded fruit-juice drinkers who come flocking towards the smell of ‘progress’ like bluebottles to a dead cat.”