Touching Mountains: The Imagination and Surrounding Country

By J. A. Appleyard SJ and J.A. Appleyard

Growing into adulthood, how do we construct our self-understanding, envision the roles we might play in the world, shape our beliefs? This book tests the idea that imagination plays a key part in forming possible pictures of ourselves and our worlds, which we test for validity by putting them into action-by performing them-assessing the results, and then incorporating them into our growing sense of self and world. On a sabbatical from teaching literature at Boston College, the author, a Jesuit priest, envisioned writing a book about the imagination, but he first spent twenty-three days on an Outward Bound program in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado, thinking he might learn something about being a better teacher and about how his students' used their imaginations to construct their presence in the world. The journal of that intensive experience with a small group of young men the age of his own students-130 miles of hiking in rugged alpine wilderness, peak climbs, river crossings, three days of silent meditation, and a variety of other physical and psychological challenges-became the basis for this book, exploring how the imagination contributes to-in Kierkegaard's interesting phrase-making the real possible.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 151428023X
• ISBN13: 9781514280232
• Release Date: June 2015
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.5" x 6.0"