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Transcend: There are Rights, There are Wrongs... And then, There are Truths

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Transcend is a book that's hard to describe, or rather, hard to categorize. It's part travelogue, part memoir, part philisophical rumination. It's the kind of book I wish my professors had had me read in my freshman philosophy class, because it's real philosophy, written by a real person, someone who truly and earnestly believes in what he is saying, someone who wants to change the world and actually took action and wrote a book. The first section of the book is a bit about Richard Joseph's life, his background and his travels through Asia and how he came to be traveling. This part makes for enjoyable reading. Joseph has an easy writing style that makes you feel like you are sitting having coffee or a beer with him, chatting with him, rather than reading. Towards the end of the first part, a friend commits suicide, and this suicide sends Joseph into himself, sends him thinking. The end product of these ruminations is the second half of the book. Joseph tries to understand why there are so many inconsistencies in current society, inconsistencies rooted somehow in race, gender, wealth and power. I cannot do his philosophy justice in a few sentences here. I will say only read this book. It is thoughtful, it will get you thinking. As I said before, I wish I had read this my freshman year in college because I think it can foster many meaningful discussions and debates, all the while being completely readable, thoroughly engaging. Joseph ponders and explores the underpinnings of our society. Transcend will make you think.

I highly recommend this book to readers who would enjoy a thought provoking hard look into the lifestyles, excesses, and inconsistencies of American culture. The book outlines the adventures and realizations that author Richard Joseph experiences in his travels around the world.

The story itself is a source of inspiration. The reader is taken on a rollercoaster ride through the trials and tribulations of the author's early life in New York City, into an entertaining story of realization. After reading the book I found myself re-examining my own life and the lives of those closest to me. The book has truly inspired me to take a hard look at my personal goals and long term plans for the future.

I met the author of this book on October 21, at an art festival in Brooklyn. His work was being displayed under the title Transcend: Confronting images of alternate paralleling realities. The photographs stopped me cold in my tracks. They were photographs mostly of kids in India in unthinkable conditions. Two young street kids with hardened expressions holding up a sign 'want to wear my shoes for a day?' Under the portrait was a quote from Woodrow Wilson about poverty being good for not much else than as a breeding ground for madness and bad tempered behavior. How appropriate. I came to another photo similar to the book cover of a person building what appeared to be a memorial offering with the World Trade Center in the back ground. So many memorials were made like this all over the five boroughs right after the Trade Center attack. I later realized that photo was taken before Sept 11th. Many people were analyzing this photo display. I had to wait my turn for a viewing of each successive photograph. Needless to say, when I saw the artist on the other side of the room selling a book also named Transcend, speaking to the public in a low keyed unassuming manner, I had to get a copy to see what this was all about.

This book is a beast. The story reads like a hell bent roller coaster. There are highs and lows, deep passages that no one in their right minds would argue against, and of course the author's 'sawed off New York' humor. It's a great story in itself that is not about some guy and his adventures but about some of the people who had crossed his path along the way. People who had something to say, share, or teach, whether they were helping him along, or trying to kill him, literally - that knife on the cover is no coincidence. Then the pages cross into part two. If I were to describe this section of chapters in a few words I'd call it: An x-ray of the human soul. There is a tremendous amount of insight crammed into these pages that the author insists is merely the end result of the right amount of direct exposure. His argument for getting on track with a truly consistent outlook toward life is rooted in this idea of each individual taking that first step toward direct physical exposure! Rich backs this theory with a number of quotes and jolting statistics, along with encouraging words. And when you step away to mull these pages over, and the passages about how we are really only a small minority on a planet of 6 billion other people essentially the same as ourselves, you can't help but feel that it's time to start seeing what else is out there in person, especially now.

Rich urges the reader not to back away from the darker areas of our self-knowledge, but on the contrary, to get as close to what it is that none of us know for sure. We don't know how we've received our lives. We don't know why we were put here. We don't know where we will be going after this. The book's stance is that we can only speculate, hope, and maintain beliefs. According to Rich, by not denying these mysteries but by living within the parameters of what we do know, the bi product would be that we would work that much harder at sculpting THIS world into the ideal existence, just in case that this place and this life in the end turn out to be 'the big prize' after all.
What the author defines as truths are essentially reminders of what we already know. Statements to the effect of each one of us is a caretaker of this WHOLE world and of our lives, and that we are now living under global circumstances where excuse making is no longer an option. The question is: are we living our lives in observance of these truths? The statistics that he includes effectively demonstrate the validity and urgency in these statements. Transcend calls for all of humanity to take charge in the here and now, for the sake of our own longevity, for the prospects of life for our children, for the environment, and ultimately for the rest of the populations that we are sharing this world with.
When you shut this book you just can't help feeling optomistic, significant, and empowered.

Transcend runs the full gamut. Follow the author on a colorful adventure through Asia and the U.S. with some funny traveling stories that really bring to life far away places, then the book takes a turn and really holds the reader, helping them to make a self examination of who they are.You will find yourself questioning elements in your life and what you can change about it. Anyone who has ever traveled outside of their everyday life knows there is a whole other world out there and once you've experienced it it forever lives in your conscience. Transcend is a book with heart and soul and should find a way on to your bookshelf.

When you hear the words "third world", "ubiquitos poverty" or "starving indian children" what do you see? Many of us will see an image of Sally Struthers asking us to renounce our daily cup of joe so that little Mohina or Manooj with their ribs potruding out can eat twice a day and not just once. Fewer will revisit their own personaly experienced and stored catalog of images from a trip to the other side of the world or for some, a walk down the block. The author begins in his box (sounds familiar?) and takes us along his ascent from its narrow, seemingly comfortable confines to the edges, where the horizon of Truth and Real Life gradually beckon him away from the mundane, culturally pre-determined exsistence many of us are happy to be trapped in. He dares to follow his Bliss, seeking more consistent truths in the varying faces of our human family throughout many of the "forgotten" places of the world. Thats the first half of the book. In the second part he dares the reader to seek more whole truths that do not exclude an uncomfortable fact about the insatiable first world appetite for "more", individually (perhaps) and certainly collectively; to push ourselves to grow (uh-oh) despite the growing pains and to take an active role in the course of our lives as part of a whole. He brings us images, statistics, facts and adventures from the first world and beyond. The pages are sprinkled with qoutes and aphorisms of philanthropists, philosophers, sages, seers and rock stars. A healthy dose of New York wit carries the reader from tears to laughs and back again. Whether you want to travel or stay home is irrelevant. But when will you crawl out of the box?

Early on in the author's journey, he tells of an unscheduled evening at a remote hostel along a "part of the old Route 66" in Arizona. One of the guests there, (Beth from Massachusetts) said to him "You know it's great that you want to experience the world, but remember one thing: experience the world, but experience the world with people in it. That's very important." Taking these words to heart, Richard Joseph set out on a journey, criss-crossing the U.S. several times, and trekking through China, Vietnam, Thailand, Nepal, Korea, and India to name just a few of the "foreign" lands. (foreign to us, North Americans). The driving force or motivation behind the traveling was a sort of pursuit of the "idea of not living a lie." (More on what "the lie" is in a bit). The author is convinced that self-propelled, purposeful traveling is "the broadest educational institution accessible to man, short of the afterlife." In other words (mine), how can a person have a mature, truth-based worldview... without viewing the WORLD at some point? Limiting ourselves to our own narrow frame of reference (only the culture we grew up in, for instance), stifles growth. Exposure leads to growth/maturity, a broadening of one's perception of reality and appreciation of truth. "When we halt or hinder exposure, we stop growing."

Do those type of ideas excite you? Cause you to wonder? Well, you'd love this book then. So far I am making it sound like some sort of textbook, but nothing could be further from the truth. The first 2/3rds of the book is a journaling or memoir, written in a very engaging and witty way... at times it is laugh-out-loud funny... and then the next page is very sobering, and will call for some contemplative digesting. What I most enjoy about the book is how it truly causes me to ask important questions of my own seemingly invulnerable existence. For me, it was very cage-rattling.

The latter third of the book is an APPLICATION of truths gleaned during the author's ongoing odyssey of the spirit. I would rather not name or otherwise "give away" what he calls the First and Second Objective Truths. To do so in this limited space would be unjust. In chapter 24, Joseph's treatment of the IMPLICATIONS of these truths as they relate to our first-world concepts of race, gender, money, power, and culture was brilliant. This, and the next chapter entitled "Nation" were like the gathering thunder of a tympani-drum roll in a symphony just before the final cymbal crash. If you're not nodding in agreement in these chapters, it can only be because your head is so firmly rammed into the ground!

What is this idea of "not living a lie"? Well, the "lie" is the blind (unconscious or unaware) acceptance of inconsistency within us. This, coupled with our knee-jerk defense of "false reality" creates an illness that we as first-worlders are especially susceptible to, due to our relative affluence and almost innate sense of superiority in the world. It's so true isn't it? We DO tend to defend our little wee realities with a vehemance that seems to come naturally. Question: Why do we do it? Answer: Because, small it is, we don't want that false reality disturbed in any way. TRANSCEND is a profound and worthwhile book written by and about someone who purposefully CHOSE to disturb the false reality within himself. Repeatedly. Anyone reading it with even a half open mind will be challenged to consider many previously unasked questions within themselves. And specific answers may not even be as important as acknowledging the presence of those questions. The questions themselves remind us that reality (the world) is much larger than the area covered in our puny daily commute to and from... anywhere! Read this book! Rattle the cage!

Transcend is more than `just a book about travel'. It is more than a `biography', and it is more than a philosophical and a psychological work. The writer takes us with him as he travels, not only physically, but also emotionally and psychologically. We see what he sees. We feel what he feels. All the while, we are traveling with a `guy from Queens' whose eyes open wider with every scene, and no matter what our philosophical orientation, our eyes open wider too. Richard Joseph's world is no longer an island defined and isolated by Queens, New York City, American protection and culture. The book was written before September 11th, yet his shock at the reality of what he sees as the curtains of Oz fall around him is prescient of our shock at the reality we see around us now.

Because the writer takes us through time as well as through physical space, he is in a process of growth throughout his work. And because the writing is so vivid, sophisticated yet down-to-earth, we grow with him. Interestingly, he never really leaves home. As much as Mr. Joseph's yearning drive sends him across the United States and then across the world, he always returns, sometimes reluctant emotionally - to an unchanged Queens - where the unchanged view is fixed painfully in Richard Joseph's past. An ongoing connection between the larger picture and the smaller, between the mountain top and the valley - in which the valley's inhabitants cannot see - can never see - the view from the top of the mountain. Yet there is a constancy and an underlying love for family which holds Mr. Joseph in place; while finding his way through a whirling vortex of events and psychological change, is fundamental and draws him back to his roots, perhaps against even his own wishes.

We are a `guy from Queens' when we first venture out from a movie like cityscape description of that setting. We see the hands of the crowd clawing at the window, trying to reach us with malice, when we are sick and feverish on the train in India. We feel the snake on our boot and the terror. We should all read this book. It is for everyone. Hopefully it is only his first book. You will be spellbound - as I was.

A picture of a young man, altered and alienated by extensive travel and experiences, discusses the problems of our society, workplace and existence that are blatantly visible to us all, but which we try not to see. A thought-provoking novel that forces you to explore every facet of your day-to-day experience and existence.

A combination of Emersonian thought and a fresh writing style and narrative similar to Jack Kerouac, this novel provides answers to questions that no one is willing to ask. You will not be able to put it down as you search for the answers with the author. You'll never think of your job, church, neighbors, city, and country in the same way again. You'll enjoy it!

This is a painful book to read. In fact it is a hard read for those who have pap and fluff books pushed on them constantly. Or who are used to being told what wonderful people they really are. But like anything that involves getting healthy it is a book I needed to read.

Why? Because it raises questions and demands answers that in my case I didn't like being asked. To Live A Lie on page 216-227 is in itself worth the time required to read the book. It is just one example of how the author tweaks our comfort zone. In this case the typical suburban, upward mobile career person who from their home to work is sheltered in the car cocoon, and in their office and in their home and artificially shielded from the real world. The real world where ones child asks why poor people don't live in the nice type of house they live in.

I appreciated even though it hurt sometimes, his wisdom about race, economics, the sexes, and our nation. I don't agree with everything he espouses, but he addresses some serious issues in a thought provoking way, that I admit really made me think and look at my role in the scheme of things.

In a society filled with blind faith, false realities, and denial systems that could defend a nuclear blast, it is refeshing to read thoughts of a human being who puts his "being" and soul into words, as he searches for his true meaning of existence through his travels and experiences in parts of the world that most of us wouldnt last a day in. His couragous discoveries and questions are issues we have all contemplated during our lifetime. However, because of our own "existential guilt" and fear of realizing our life has been lived through a lens of others; a lie, we unconsciously refuse to truly examine ideas that would rattle our philosophical and pyschological make-up. After reading this book you will discover that we are mortal, vulnerbale beings; death bypasses no one. In the end your personality, ego, and what others think of you mean nothing.

Thanks Rich, for your experiences,ideas, honestly, heart and soul...but most of all thanks for empowering us, the readers, with valuable knowledge, perspectives, and encouraging us to think and dig deeper within ourselves. The answers are within. As Kant once said, "knowledge is the meaning of life."