Willing to Learn: Passages of Personal Discovery

Mary Catherine Bateson is among the most important voices alive today. Daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, anything Catherine writes is wise, warm, artful and authentic. Willing to Learn is her newest book. It is a rich collection of essays compiled for the first time and available nowhere else. Ranging from a poignant description of her father's death, which moved me to grateful tears because of what it teaches about dying with grace and dignity, to insights about parenting, politics, aesthetics and world peace, this book is an eclectic feast. You can pick it up and read any chapter, and can read the chapters in any order. Each stands alone and each contributes to our capacity to be nourished and inspired throughout our lives, young and old, if we are "willing to learn."

What a treat to find this hardbound collection of the work of Mary Catherine Bateson. Her prose is eloquent. Her ideas are rich and diverse. Her thinking is open, creative and, at the same time, intensely logical. There are selections from some of her best read books, but she also presents some of her hard-to-find material which merits inclusion. Her very interesting life provides the backdrop, but it's how she processes and weaves her observations and experiences into her work that makes these pieces so very illuminating to me. A must for collectors of the writing of the best thinkers of our time.