Selling Ourselves Short: Why We Struggle to Earn a Living and Have a Life

by Catherine M. Wallace

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1587430797
• ISBN13: 9781587430794
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Brazos Press
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Thorough exploration of the challenges of work-life-home balance

SELLING OURSELVES SHORT: WHY WE STRUGGLE TO EARN A LIVING AND HAVE A LIFE Catherine M. Wallace Brazos Press, 2003 Reviewed by Darren Cronshaw Balancing work demands with quality of life is a challenge in the face of pathological individualism, profit-making competitiveness and professional ambition. Catherine Wallace contends that work has come to take precedence over everything, because competition and profit-seeking are not framed by compassion and the common good. Urbanisation, capitalism and liberal democracy have marginalized compassion, commitment and fidelity in favour of competitive self-seeking in Western social ethics. The golden rule "Love your neighbour as yourself" has been displaced by "get the most for the least." This, she argues, is a cultural toxin that threatens to undermine community life and displaces having a life. Spending more time at work and more money in shops in an idolatrous attempt to define ourselves leaves us exhausted. There are loads of personal development books around that offer ideas for achieving a successful and balanced life. Wallace goes deeper in analyzing what keeps people from balanced living and expressing a vision for compassionate living. Her vision is one of compassion and respect rather than the more common and increasingly dominant competition. Rather than separate spheres for men and women, or parents prioritizing material provision over loving nurture, she summons parents `both to provide for children and to nurture them, to cuddle them and buy them carrots, to sing songs and provide insurance.' (p.76) Her vision is to rustle up courage to live life in good conscience and all possible integrity; to find joy and flow in all activities - work and play; to reclaim time and energy for community and friendships; to be resilient in resisting the urge to buy and collect more "stuff" for our children; and to reclaim our lives as lives worth living that flow from loving abundantly and living generously. This is a call to resist and go against the flow of compulsive consumerism and professionalisation of compassion. Her call is not for random acts of kindness and senseless beauty (kindness is not random nor beauty senseless) but intentional respect. She does not pretend to offer a postmodern alternative but preaches a premodern commitment and fidelity. Vision is far-reaching. But she suggests it is necessary in a society and economy that is not "rational" but delusional. The 318 page book goes beyond self-help books to evaluate socio-cultural constructs that trap us - gender roles, separate-spheres doctrines, marketplace ideology, and even the influence of double-entry bookkeeping on theology. The author draws on personal experience, architecture and neuroscience, a wide array of social science research, moral and spiritual theology and critical analysis. I particularly appreciated two relevant insights from historical theology. Firstly she explores imago Dei as a starting point for a view of h

A Book for All Seasons

In a moment of pure serendipity I happened upon Selling Ourselves Short as a remaindered book. Exquisitely written & spiritually reflective, it is one of those select books that enriches with each reading. It informs way beyond it's purported ambit.