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competencefantasy 's review for:
Dear Graduate: Letters of Wisdom from Chuck Swindoll
by Charles R. Swindoll
I truly do not understand this genre of book. It seems to lack a purpose, aside from giving one's least favorite relative something to give on graduation, and also seems to carry a blissful unawareness that a graduate might have more than one character trait, enabling one to provide a gift that will still be relevant to their interest tomorrow morning. Oh well, let's give for the occasion not for the person and try not to think about why basically no one ever buys these for themselves.
However, even supposing "grad" books are a good idea, I cannot see the point of this one. It purports to specialize in heavy, highly applicable, life advice, the sort of thing that would make a lot of sense in a handwritten graduation card but is baffling to outsource to a strange author in a faux leather book. Unwanted advice is at least sentimental if it comes from one's grandmother directly; from a self righteous author, it is bizarre. This is especially true given that the advice seems to be to form by sheer will and discipline a God obsession that is nowhere near mentally healthy... ok I guess that's not entirely fair. The sort of attitude the books suggesting could probably work out, if the person arrived at it through their own reflection, agency, and study. What would certainly not work is reading 138 pages on graduation night and attempting to actually follow any of this.
Let's face it, it would not be a good idea to use this as any sort of guidebook to your life. Even by the book's own standards it would be idolatrous to use it as your anchor and not the bible. So why are we setting it up by social context as the advice from the elders that will carry us naive, poor choice making, in with a bad crowd youths through life?
I waited many years to read this because if I decided to dislike it, I wanted to have enough additional life experience not to be the ingrate child who missed the point. Nearly a decade on, my opinion is the same. Give your own dang bad advice, don't buy it from Hallmark.
Oh and there's a homophobic example because of course there is. Dude, tell everyone to reflect on if their falling in love is a godly choice if you must tell anyone. It's either good for nobody or everybody.
However, even supposing "grad" books are a good idea, I cannot see the point of this one. It purports to specialize in heavy, highly applicable, life advice, the sort of thing that would make a lot of sense in a handwritten graduation card but is baffling to outsource to a strange author in a faux leather book. Unwanted advice is at least sentimental if it comes from one's grandmother directly; from a self righteous author, it is bizarre. This is especially true given that the advice seems to be to form by sheer will and discipline a God obsession that is nowhere near mentally healthy... ok I guess that's not entirely fair. The sort of attitude the books suggesting could probably work out, if the person arrived at it through their own reflection, agency, and study. What would certainly not work is reading 138 pages on graduation night and attempting to actually follow any of this.
Let's face it, it would not be a good idea to use this as any sort of guidebook to your life. Even by the book's own standards it would be idolatrous to use it as your anchor and not the bible. So why are we setting it up by social context as the advice from the elders that will carry us naive, poor choice making, in with a bad crowd youths through life?
I waited many years to read this because if I decided to dislike it, I wanted to have enough additional life experience not to be the ingrate child who missed the point. Nearly a decade on, my opinion is the same. Give your own dang bad advice, don't buy it from Hallmark.
Oh and there's a homophobic example because of course there is. Dude, tell everyone to reflect on if their falling in love is a godly choice if you must tell anyone. It's either good for nobody or everybody.