Letters to My Son A Father's Wisdom on Manhood, Life, and Love

by Nerburn, Kent; Carlson, Richard

• ISBN13: 9781608682805
• ISBN10: 1608682803
• Edition: Anniv.
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-05-13
• Publisher: New World Library

Summary

Essential Wisdom for a Life Well Lived — with Three New Chapters Included

At once spiritual and practical, Letters to My Son has been beloved by readers from all walks of life, including single mothers seeking guidance in raising a son, fathers looking to share a voice of clarity about life’s most important issues, and young men wanting an intelligent, sensitive, and streetwise companion on the journey toward a worthy manhood. In this twentieth anniversary edition, Kent Nerburn adds to his classic reflections on love, marriage, travel, money and wealth, tragedy and suffering, spirituality, sex, and the true meaning of strength, with new chapters on sexual identity and the difficulty of moving on (from relationships, homes, and stages of life). Unique in its profound simplicity and timeless insight, Letters to My Son is a book to savor and a gift to give to anyone looking for clear and gentle guidance on the big issues in life.

Author Biography

Kent Nerburn is an author, sculptor, and educator who has been deeply involved in Native American issues and education. His work has been showcased on The History Channel, on American Public Radio, and in newspapers across the country.

Nerburn’s books Neither Wolf nor Dog and The Wolf at Twilight have both received Minnesota Book Awards. He has compiled several anthologies of Native American thought, including The Wisdom of the Native Americans, and has produced an updated version of The Soul of An Indian, Ohiyesa’s (Charles Alexander Eastman’s) classic exploration of Dakotah spirituality and values. The History Channel featured his title Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy, and many of his other books have become classics in their fields and been solid sellers for years: Letters to My Son, Small Graces, Simple Truths, and his most recent, Ordinary Sacred.

Nerburn holds a Ph.D. with distinction from the University of California and Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. His commentaries on the school shootings on the Red Lake reservation, where he spent several years directing an oral history project, were broadcast on American Public Radio and published in newspapers across the country. In addition to being a program evaluator for the Minnesota Humanities Commission and serving on their selection board, he has served as a consultant in curriculum development for the American Indian Institute in Norman, Oklahoma, and has been a presenter before various groups, including the National Indian Education Association and the President’s blue-ribbon panel on Indian Education. Nerburn currently serves on the advisory board of Red Feather Development Group, which assists tribes in building straw-bale housing on reservations. He lives with his wife on a pine-rimmed lake near the Canadian border in northern Minnesota.

His website is KentNerburn.com.

Table of Contents

Contents

Foreword by Richard Carlson
Introduction
Prologue: A Father’s Wish

1. The Shadow of the Father
2. Man and Male
3. Strength
4. Rainaldi’s Lesson
5. Education and Learning
6. Work
7. Possessions
8. The Miracle of Giving
9. Money and Wealth
10. Drugs and Alcohol
11. Tragedy and Suffering
12. Fighting
13. War
14. The Spiritual Journey
15. Loneliness and Solitude
16. Sports and Competition
17.Travel
18. The Blue Moment
19. Craig’s Lesson
20. The Power of Art
21. Women and Men
22. Falling in Love
23. The Mystery of Sex
24. Making Love
25. The Haunted Heart
26. Partners and Marriage
27. Staying Faithful
28. Fatherhood
29. The Burden of Age
30. The Gift of Age
31. Death

Epilogue: A Father’s Reflection