Thursday, June 26, 2008

Book Review: I Will Not Be Broken by Jerry White

Just finished reading I Will Not Be Broken by Jerry White and this is an amazingly uplifting and hope-filled book.

In 1984, Jerry White lost his leg in a landmine accident while on vacation in Israel. He later became a co-founder of the Landmine Survivors Network, which has recently changed it's name and broadened it's mission to become Survivor Corps

The book is a compilation of Jerry's own experiences and the lessons learned in surviving by many other people he's met, and it's subtitled "5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis".

The book breaks down the keys to surviving and Thriving during that survival, into the 5 steps,which you can find listed on the website for the book, and for me, that was part of why I felt the book would be such an invaluable tool for anyone recovering from a cataclysmic loss in their life. Because of my volunteer work with Soldiers Angels , I was particularly thinking of wounded soldiers while I was reading this book.

Many wounded soldiers refer to the day they almost lost their life in combat as their "Alive Day", and although Jerry doesn't use that term in his book, I found this sentence on page 7 that seems to epitomize what "Alive Day" means...." I want to encourage all of us to honor our toughest dates - the tragedies that bind us - in an effort to transform victimhood into survivorship."

The book does a wonderful job, in my opinion, of giving practical advice for How to "transform victimhood into survivorship",and is also filled with the stories of How so many Other survivors of tragedies have done exactly that.

It's an easy read, and I would recommend it highly to anyone who is currently facing a life-altering tragedy in their life, or the life of someone close to them.

 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I missed this previously, and will need to check it out.  It sounds useful even for those not currently facing a life crisis, just the insight into his process, et al.  Thanks.