It has been awhile since I have done any postings to my blog. I have decided to start posting some of my book discussions. For 14 years I wrote the column "Book Talk" for the publication phenomeNEWS. That lovely New Thought publication has stopped publishing after 26 or more years. I had intended the following discussion for the holiday issue that never published.

For the holiday issue of phenomeNEWS I like to discuss books appropriate as holiday gifts. This year we turn to the newest work from noted actor Sidney Poitier: Life Beyond Measure: Letters to my Great-Granddaughter (Harper One, 2008). Sidney Poitier’s books offer readers far more than the usual celebrity’s biography. Poitier, a deeply philosophical man, ponders serious questions about life, spiced with stories from his own life experiences. Written as letters to his great-granddaughter Ayele, currently two years old, this delightful book is appropriate for and would best serve both teens and adults.

Eight years ago in “Book Talk” we discussed and recommended Sidney Poitier’s first autobiographical book, The Measure of a Man: a Spiritual Autobiography (Harper Collins, 2000). Just last year Oprah included it as a recommended book for Oprah’s Book Club. We were happy to see it recognized once more for its exceptional content and thoughtful, literate writing. We can say the same for Sidney’s new book.

Still it is with some amazement that we read either of these fine works. As we are reminded by the author himself, Poitier was illiterate when he arrived in the U.S. from the Bahamas at age 15. One is touched to learn about the waiter who taught the hungry-for-knowledge youth how to read. Therefore, it is indeed amazing to read Sidney Poitier’s books and thereby experience his fluent, clear prose that demonstrates both a polished literacy, a deeply thoughtful mind, and a gift for story-telling.

The overall theme of Sidney’s new work should be clear. His intention is to share wisdom gained in eighty-two years of an exceptional and eventful life, hoping that what he shares about his life may be helpful to his beloved great-granddaughter. By putting his experiences into this book, many millions can benefit as well as we ponder his thoughts about a myriad of human experiences. Never pedantic, Poitier keeps readers interested by clarifying every piece of advice or wisdom with stories from his own life.

Whereas Poitier wrote this book for his great-granddaughter, it clearly can inspire all readers. One sees this in the author’s “Prologue” where he notes his work over many years on a book of essays. The scope of these essays form the discussions in this current book wherein he reveals the questions about life that he has been pondering for years. Sharing thoughts with his great-granddaughter was his first intention, but then he also decided “to share the contents with those of you [readers] who are searchers like me.”

Poitier divides his book into three parts, called “First Outdoorings,” “Expeditions,” and “Questions, Answers, and Mysteries.” That first section, “First Outdoorings” presents letters (chapters) that largely tell the story of Sidney Poitier’s early years. His theme here is that we are all products of our ancestors and the past. These pages are filled with delightful stories about Sidney’s family and childhood experiences. Perhaps most interesting is the story of a soothsayer who told Sidney’s mother that her prematurely born, three pound son would not only survive, but would “travel to most of the corners of the earth . . . walk with kings. . . [and] be rich and famous.” Such a prediction was unbelievable to the poor tomato farmer family from the small Bahama island called Cat Island. But of course, we all know that it came true.

Poitier’s description of the family’s move to the “big city” of the island of Nassau when he was about eleven years old is fascinating indeed. At that time Sidney had never seen an automobile, nor paved roads, nor ice cream or even ice itself. Everything was miraculously new to the boy. He had never seen his own face in a mirror or electric lights. All these new experiences influenced Sidney and his siblings in multiple ways. The author uses this opportunity “to observe how we all shape our lives and how situations that arise shape us.”

Describing himself as “a loner,” Sidney Poitier left home at age fifteen to find his place in the world—in the United States. His first stop was Florida where he experienced “the searing shock of racism, segregation, and the mistreatment of people on the basis of color alone.” He rather quickly moved with just a few dollars in his pocket to New York City where his first experience was “blood-freezing, bone-numbing” winter—something unknown in the Bahamas. Loners tend to be self-teachers and so it was for Sidney, who says he mostly lived “internally” and learned through observation. After a stint in the Army, he supported himself as a dishwasher and gradually worked his way into the field of acting.

The second part of Sidney Poitier’s book, “Expeditions,” focuses more directly on the major philosophical questions that he has pondered throughout his life. Each letter/chapter deals with important issues for Sidney, while at the same time he grounds the discussion in further stories from his life experiences. His first chapter here (letter 7) is about his beliefs about God, a huge topic indeed. Acknowledging his mother’s deep faith, he discloses his own meandering path to attempt to understand God. He says, “The closest I can come is a belief that there is an intelligence that does not manifest itself in a solid material or in a presence; it is much bigger than the universe itself, because if God is omniscient as He is supposed to be, the universe itself is one of His creations.” Moreover, Poitier says, “And that all-encompassing God is not just for some of us; that God is for all of us. It is not a God for one culture, or one religion, or one planet.”

Clearly, as readers ponder the statements above, they have to notice that Sidney Poitier is a deeply serious, philosophical person. This was underscored for me last summer when I watched Sidney Poitier being interviewed on the Larry King Live show on CNN. Larry King, obviously enjoying his interview with Sidney, asked him why he didn’t do more appearances and interviews on television. Sidney replied, “I can’t think or speak in sound bites!” Viewers could observe that when Larry King posed a question, Sidney would respond in thoughtful detail. Certainly one sees this in Life Beyond Measure—to our great joy!

The next few chapters (letters) deal with significant human issues, all told and enhanced with more fascinating autobiographical stories. Poitier tells his great-granddaughter how he struggled in the channel between “want” and “need.” That chapter is perfectly related to the situation of all of us who struggle in our present day consumer society. Another chapter tells how he learned to read and how to be responsible for his own choices. A beautiful chapter discusses love. Another deals with fear, doubt, and desperation and how he “danced with them all.”

In that same section of “Expeditions,” Poitier writes about addiction (smoking and gambling for him); bravery and cowardice, and close calls with disaster. In typical Poitier fashion, he names his “compulsions:” “a compulsion to read more and better understand the world around me; . . . to learn all that there is to learn that might make of me a better person—with better insights and a deeper understanding of myself and of my fellow human beings. Such has been a preoccupation of mine, a life goal . . . as far back as I can remember.” Such lines as these can be pure inspiration and a model for all of us.

In his final “Expeditions” chapter (letter 15) Poitier discusses “People of Courage,” his heroes and role models. They include Nelson Mandela, baseball’s Jackie Robinson, author James Baldwin, UN mediator Ralph Bunche, Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Jordan, Eleanor Roosevelt, Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Barack Obama. Poitier lovingly describes how his father, though “unlearned,” demonstrated the characteristics that he (Poitier) admires in his role models: “a sense of self, of character, of personal self-worth and kindness and hopefulness.”

The concluding third section of Life Beyond Measure deals with “Questions, Answers, and Mysteries.” Here the author discusses many of the issues we all deal with in life: searching for truths, dealing with others, turmoil in society, and trying to find a balance. Sidney reports how he struggles to create a “neutral zone.” He says, “I am working now to establish a neutral zone in my insides, using my consciousness to create a place to go into.” This is a place where “you’re not making judgments about what you see, hear, feel, or touch.”

In another chapter Poitier defines and discusses logic and reason and how survival requires the use of both. Given that our society today is so pervaded with emotional reactions, and often demonstrates a serious lack of reason, such a discussion benefits us all. Poitier identifies the enemies of logic and reason as “mass hysteria, hate, prejudice, and ignorance.”

Sidney Poitier also delivers philosophical, but entertaining, discussions about science and society, society’s propensity for war, power and control issues, the environment, faith, death, and the world as it currently is. All these chapters are brim with thoughtful explorations of the issues. Poitier says, “I was driven by a life that forced me to think for myself in the world that I had inherited.” His carefully thought out philosophy thereby becomes a gift not only to his great-granddaughter Ayele, but to all of us as well.

He says to Ayele (and us): “I hope to leave you some of the music that has played for me whenever I’ve put my ear to the mysteries of the universe that have never ceased to catch my attention.” His conclusion is: “The tools for meeting life head-on, as I see it, are acquired knowledge, belief, and hope. . . .The task is to learn as much as you can about as much as you can; the great disease of mankind is ignorance.” These words are especially pleasing to this retired teacher, your “Book Talk” writer.

Life Beyond Measure is a beautiful book to read at the holiday season. It can be a gift for others, or just a gift for yourself.

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