Dear Reader,
Today's guest author is Alexandra Hudson, writer, popular speaker, and the founder of Civic Renaissance, a publication and intellectual community dedicated to beauty, goodness and truth.
She earned a master's degree in public policy at the London School of Economics as a Rotary Scholar, and is an adjunct professor at the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy. She is also the creator of a series for The Teaching Company called Storytelling and The Human Condition, available for streaming as of May 2023. She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband and two children restoring their historic Italian renaissance style home, enjoying classic films, putting a new spin on old recipes in the kitchen, dabbling in water color, or reading a Platonic dialogue.
Alexandra’s new book is The Soul of Civility. As the daughter of the "Manners Lady," Alexandra was raised to respect others. But as she grew up, Hudson discovered a difference between politeness―a superficial appearance of good manners―and true civility. In this timely book, Hudson sheds light on how civility can help bridge our political divide.
You can win one of three copies of The Soul of Civility. Send an email to: sarabeth.haring@stmartins.com Be sure to include your preferred shipping address, in case you're a winner.
For more information visit https://alexandraohudson.com/
Welcome to the book club Alexandra...
Did you know that the oldest book in the world is a civility book?
And the advice given in The Teachings of Ptahhotep from Ancient Egypt--where he distilled his advice on how to live well with others--is as relevant and practical today as when the book was written nearly forty-five hundred years ago.
In his book, Ptahhotep explores the most important question of our day--the question that I also explore in my forthcoming book, The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principle to Heal Society and Ourselves.
Twenty-four hundred years before Christ, there lived a wealthy and powerful statesman named Ptahhotep. Ptahhotep was an adviser to Pharaoh, the leader of ancient Egypt--the most sophisticated civilization in the world. Ptahhotep had made it to the pinnacle of earthly success. He had spent his career in the room where it happens--where big, world-altering decisions are made. He had helped shape the course of the world's most advanced society. He had tasted the best and finest things that money and power could buy.
After all of his worldly success, Ptahhotep realized that what truly mattered were the sacrifices one made in order to live in community with others. He wrote a letter to Pharaoh's son distilling his insights into joyful living, in hopes that the son might take the lessons to heart and lead Egypt with wisdom and grace.
And in writing down his pithy thirty-seven maxims on civility as the building block of human community, he was penning what is today the oldest book in the world.
"Do not be proud and arrogant with your knowledge," Teachings begins, condemning human vanity. The second teaching advises restraint for the sake of community: "If you meet a disputant in the heat of action...pay no attention to his evil speech....Your selfcontrol will be the match for his evil utterances."
Teaching four relates to our duty to do kindness to those who can do nothing for us in return, the hallmark of true civility: "Wretched is he who injures a poor man." Kindness toward others--including the stranger and those who cannot do anything for us in return--allows us to flourish.
The maxims condemn slander. For instance, teaching eight instructs, "Do not malign anyone, great or small," and teaching twenty-two advises, "Don't repeat slander nor should you even listen to it.
Notwithstanding the diversity of human cultures and practices, there are certain unchanging truths about the human experience, many of which Teachings encapsulates.
Ptahhotep would not have had to write down his precepts if everyone in his era had been following them already.
He derived them by observing human behavior and documenting what conduct brought misery, and what led to personal and societal harmony.
We can be thankful that Ptahhotep stood at the beginning of a long tradition of thoughtful people reflecting on the stuff of human flourishing who can continue to teach us--and also remind us of the fragility of society, but also the high rewards on offer to those who maintain commitment to the joint partnership of good living with others.
-- Alexandra Hudson
You can win one of three copies of The Soul of Civility. Send an email to: [email protected] Be sure to include your preferred shipping address, in case you're a winner.
* I hope you enjoyed reading today's guest column. If you're one of the winners, or your entry is an Honorable Mention in this year's Write a DearReader contest, it will be featured as a guest column. Cash prizes, rules and deadlines, along with last year's winning entries, read all about them at: http://www.dearreader.com/contest2023/index.html
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
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