On Monday, while on my way to work, I stumbled across a book titled "How to love", written by Gordon Livingston, M.D. In this book, he described about several personality disorders, and mentioned about the DSM, which quite intrigued me, as I learnt about DSM from my counselling course.
The book is a series of thought-provoking short articles grouped under 3 titles, "A Man is known by the company he avoids", "People to Cherish" and "It is not the answer that enlightens but the Question". Each article has an axiom or a cute title, for example, "Don't blame the mirror for your own reflection", "No hell is private", "Money can't buy happiness; it can, however, rent it".
In "A Man is known by the company he avoids", Gordon discussed behaviour of people, and I found myself finally understanding the behaviour of a person who once was a friend, whom I had disassociated myself from.
In "People to Cherish", Gordon wrote about the qualities of people, for example, kindness, tolerance, optimism, and honesty, among others. While reading the book this week, I realized I have found such friends in the volunteer group.
After finishing the book, I wondered why this book wasn't published in earlier years, for me to have stumbled upon it, but of course, I just realized that there must be plenty of such books around. I just didn't open my eyes wide enough.