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The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler: Like The Answer to How is Yes, Gendler's one-hundred page celebration of the facets of our being is not an overtly spiritual book. Yet, by personifying over seventy emotions, reactions, and qualities of the human personality, Gendler allows us to gaze upon our selves with an artist's attention to detail.
What are these qualities? Worry, Fear, Clarity, Confidence, Greed, Commitment, Resignation, Service, Inspiration, Harmony, Joy; the list stretches on, covering every conceivable response to the necessities of life. Gendler's gift is in describing the qualities — making each stand on its own as a distinct response to life:
Sometimes all the qualities seem to talk at once, and I don't know who to listen to first. Certainty comes into the room and stands in the doorway and gives me a good long look until I hear the silence again....
Although I have met Longing many times, it is not easy to describe her appearance. She dresses herself with an awareness of where she is going and who will be there. It is more than the costumes though. Even the gossip columnist who notices everything could not quite remember Longing's height or the color of her sea-filled eyes. If you must see her, invite her to a concert. She is especially fond of the music of stringed instruments....
Guilt is the prosecutor who knows how to make every victim feel like the criminal. She follows the scent of doubt and self-hatred to its sources. She will not tell you what you have done wrong. Her silence is brutal. Her disapproval surrounds you in an envelope of cold nameless terror....
Fear has a large shadow, but he himself is quite small. He has a vivid imagination. He composes horror music in the middle of the night. He is not very social, and he keeps to himself at political meetings. His past is a mystery. He warned us not to talk to each other about him, adding that there is nowhere any of us could go where he wouldn't hear us. We were quiet. When we began to talk to each other, he changed. His manners started to seem pompous, and his snarling voice sounded rehearsed....S
The journey through The Book of Qualities is like reading our own diary. What seems closest and intimately tied to our sense of being, becomes an object to be observed. Gendler's whimsical tone helps diffuse the heat of emotions such as jealously and anxiety and brings thankfulness for the visitations of honesty and truth. The Book of Qualities grants us the great gift of separation from our thoughts and feelings; allowing us a deeper view of who we really are.
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