SOME GLAD MORNING

A Maine-based pastor draws daily rations of wisdom from both nature and human foibles.

In short chapters that have the feeling of sermons, McCall seeks “deep chords of hope” to weather our fraught times. “Depression, suicide, anxiety and addiction, including wealth addiction, are rampant and threaten to crumble industrialized societies from within,” he writes, “playing into the hands of demagogues and the greedy. The author is clearly in tune with his surroundings, and the environment plays a crucial role in these thought pieces. Arguing that we “are moving from dogmatic religion established by male hierarchies and based on supernatural revelation to open-sourced religion established by consensus and based on Nature,” McCall leaves room for differing interpretations of divinity. Such comments as evolution being “the music of the spheres” open up different avenues of approach to the natural and spiritual worlds, all of which emphasize the author’s sense that “every creature is kin.” McCall tries hard to be relatable, and he mostly succeeds in serving as an affable guide to the complex mysteries and marvels of existence. For example, note his description of a particularly spectacular solar display: “Like a glimpse of the bone structure of the cosmos, and the bones were made of light.” It’s not all love and light, however, as the author also addresses such topics as climate change, income inequality, and estate taxes, “instituted by our founders to prevent the growth of a wealthy aristocratic class, as in Europe.” There are a few stumbles: The Permian extinction erased more than 90% of the planet’s species, not 50%, and the author’s discussion of intelligent evolution could use further consideration. More often than not, however, McCall hits the nail squarely on the head, and quotations from Thoreau, Whitman, Longfellow, Tecumseh, Welty, Dillard, and others add shading.

Rewarding, ripe wisdom for a life lived with open eyes and a caring soul.