The Mountains of ParisThe Mountains of Paris

That feeling you get under the starry night sky – what is that?
Or in front of the heartrending beauty of a sunset…Or the kindness caught in the face of a stranger…Something deep and almost inexpressible is there. A kind of tremendousness. But what is it?

This book is an exploration of the mystery of awe, the meaning of wonder. Our lives are surrounded by it, nourished by it. If we just remember to look!

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Living in Paris for a winter and a spring and waking each morning to a view of Notre Dame, I was led to revise my life story from one of trudging and occasional woe into one punctuated by nourishing and sometimes unsettling brilliance.

In long years of mountaineering I fought the self-loathing that had infused me as the gay kid in the Baptist pew.  What I discovered there — and later found echoing in museums and concert halls and books — was a deep sense of awe: a cosmos filled with a terrifying yet beautiful rightness.

A painting by Vermeer. A Bosch. The music echoing in a cathedral. Bach. Poetry. The face of a loved one. What, indeed, does it all mean? This much for sure: our lives need to be grounded solidly on the immeasurable mystery of beauty and awe.

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Winner of multiple awards for nonfiction, finalist for Indie Press Award.