The Tao of Ordinariness

Robert J. Wicks, who received his doctorate in psychology from Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, is Professor Emeritus at Loyola University Maryland. He has published more than 50 books for professionals and the general public, including Night Call: Embracing Compassion and Hope in a Troubled World (Oxford University Press, 2018); Perspective: The Calm within the Storm (Oxford University Press, 2014); and Bounce: Living the Resilient Life (Oxford University Press, 2010). Dr. Wicks has lectured on the importance of resilience, self-care, and maintaining a healthy perspective in Hanoi, Beijing, Port au Prince, Johannesburg, Phnom Penh, and Budapest as well as at the Mayo Clinic, Yale School of Nursing, Harvard's Children's Hospital and Harvard Divinity School, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the U.S. Air Force Academy, on Capitol Hill to Members of Congress and their Chiefs of Staff, and most recently in Beirut to persons living and working in Aleppo, Syria. He has alsoserved on the faculty of Bryn Mawr College's Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research and received the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the American Counseling Association's Division on Spirituality, Ethics, and Values. In 2006, he was recipient of the first annual Alumni Award for Excellence in Professional Psychology from Widener University.

• Introduction: Coming Home to YourselfChapter One. An Elusive Companion Virtue: HumilityChapter Two. Travel Lightly: Simplicity and Letting GoChapter Three. The Unrecognizable You: Addressing the Reputation You Currently Have with YourselfChapter Four. Becoming "Sea-Kindly": Living with Patience, Perseverance, and a Willingness to FailChapter Five. Mentors in Ordinariness: Experiencing Authenticity in PracticeChapter Six. Alonetime: Embracing Spaces Conducive for the Processes of Self-Uncovering and Re-discoveryEpilogue. Returning Home to Yourself. . . Again

Wicks persuasively engages anecdotes from personal experience and from literature to illustrate the impact of seeking authenticity, for oneself and others, by learning and being who we are. In todays environment, it is easy for individuals to get lost in aspiring or responding to unrealistic expectations, suggestions, or goals as painted by social media. Wicks counsels readers to have the courage to "confront unhelpful external influences" by embracing ordinariness and "modeling" a "lack of egoism in one's interpersonal relations," such that others may also be encouraged to become more fully themselves. Overall, the book is an easy read that nonetheless delivers a vitally important message. Although it would be a good supplementary text for some college courses, it is also potentially engaging and enlightening for the everyday reader.