This is a book critique I wrote for a class this past semester about a book by Donald Miller. I was going to write on the same subject but felt that I had said most of it through this paper so let me know what you think.
Many people have attempted to discover the formula that will have them lead a purpose driven life. Whether it is through self-help books or a sermon, throughout the years, certain individuals have claimed to know the trick behind this meaningful lifestyle. Donald Miller, a man of controversial stature, makes no such claim yet offers a solution better than many men before him have proposed. According to Miller, a life of meaning can simply be reached by treating it as a story. Everyone’s life is a story that connects to others with the potential of meeting in a head-on collision.
The theme of this book is simple. It is story. Miller writes personal stories that, on the surface do not seem to connect yet find a way toward each other by the end of the book. His style is personal, almost as if he is talking directly to each individual reader who happened to pick up his book. It feels as if he is having a conversation with a close friend rather than writing to a complete stranger. This enables Miller to be more open about his failures and short comings and this book spends a lot of time on those subjects. The subtitle of the book is a great synopsis, “What I learned while editing my life.”
After writing a book that sold a lot of copies (Blue Like Jazz), Independent Filmmakers approached Donald Miller about making a movie based off of his book. They met and as they began to write together, Miller discovered his life was stale. After researching storytelling, through his new friends, the filmmakers, and a man by the name of Robert McKee, Miller began to incorporate what he learned about shaping story and characters into his own life, allowing him to find satisfaction in ways he’d never felt before.
A good story can be summed up simply by the words of Miller’s friend who joined him at a conference held by the famous screenwriting champion, Robert McKee. Together, they came up with, “A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it”.
The sentence's structure is raw yet captures the essence of what story is truly about. The life of an individual can be looked at in a similar way. Stories are made up of people trying to fight for a cause or reaching goals. Goals are always the same. They can range from finding romance to someone going after his or her dream job. Goals are the reason humanity does what it does. Goals give people purpose. Boring lives become a reality when people give up on their dreams. Dreams inspire goal-driven lifestyles. People find that life is meaningless when they think the risk is too great a cost to trade for their comfort.
Miller writes about the impact of powerful stories that meet up with boring people. Throughout his journey, he hikes an incredible trail overseas, kayaks across a river for days, and rides a bike clear across the United States, all of which he did without being in fantastic shape. Each adventure held a different motivation to accomplish, yet he defied great odds to make them all happen and met incredible people along the way. During his hiking trip he developed a relationship with a woman who later became his girlfriend, and they shared a deeply meaningful relationship. As he journeyed down the river, he and his friends met a man who has written over five hundred pages of his own memories. His name is Bob, and he stresses the importance of memories and how they are capable of shaping one’s character.
A key ingredient in getting a story moving along is known as the inciting incident. The inciting incident is what forces the main character of a story into action. It makes the protagonist question the status quo or causes a young space farmer to challenge a corrupt government. The inciting incident takes shape in reality through various forms. It can happen through social injustice, an unpopular law enacted by the government, bigotry, a weaker child being beaten on by a bully, or even a false accusation. The list is enormous and different from person to person but what remains the same is that most people refuse to act. It is why so many people in the United States are comfortable with obesity. They know what they need to do in order to lose weight, yet they choose to stay the same because the level of difficulty is not worth the risk of missing out on delightful foods such as fried chicken and ice-cream. Obesity is a subject throughout Miller’s book because at the beginning of his story he was fat, but by the end after he took that first step toward telling a good story, he lost weight and is in decent shape today because of it.
Nothing in this world worth having comes without a price. Sacrifice and risk are essential elements to telling a good story. Who is going to watch a movie or read a book about a man who wakes up, goes to work, comes home from work, and goes to bed? The only way people will watch or read this story is if a beautiful woman wakes him up telling him his life is about to change or on his way home from work a man fires a weapon at him and he narrowly escapes death. Conflict is what creates an interesting story. Without conflict everyone would just get what they want without truly gaining anything.
Lessons are not learned from achieving what is yearned for. Lessons are learned through the process and steps that were taken to get it. When the destination is reached, people get what they want but what they needed all along is discovered through the journey that brought them to that place. The fact of the matter is, people are searching for meaning and often lose themselves on the path to finding it. People find religion then decide it is not logical so they move onto a quest for knowledge rather than faith. It happens the other way around as well. C.S. Lewis was essentially talked into conversion and become one of the strongest Christian voices of his time.
Something that is often overlooked about history is that it is one large continuing story. Many will grumble and complain because history is all fact and statistics but realistically speaking, it is about characters that wanted something and overcame great conflict in order to get it. The same can be said about the Bible. It is full of what could be random stories but they all somehow intertwine because of a caring God and His son Jesus who overcame the greatest conflict to get what he wanted. His goal was freedom for all of humanity willing to accept it. His conflict is humanities greatest foe, its sin. His story is, to this day, the most powerful one to tell and connects all other stories.
The most heart and gut-wrenching moment of Miller’s book comes from his story of meeting his father. He grew up without many memories of his father and through his ideas of living a more meaningful story, decided to look into the whereabouts of his dad. He did and found out that his father died a few years earlier. He went on his hiking trip and came back and received a phone call from his mother, who told him that she talked to his father and that he really wanted to meet him. Miller was confused and not relieved. He had finally gotten used to the fact that his father was dead and he would never have to confront him about anything and with a slap in the face by the hand of reality old emotions and insecurities began to race back through his mind and heart.
He met with his father and overcame what was causing some of the greatest conflict in his life. Insecurity comes from the fear of mediocrity. It is all about us thinking we will not ever amount to more than what we see in the mirror. Insecurities fight the inciting incident. They keep destiny at a standstill, corrupting hope, faith, and will. The problem with this is that most people think that their own insecurities are a part of who they are so they accept them rather than fight them. Acceptance is the first step toward defeat. The minute a man or woman wants to make a situation work even though it is an unjust one is the same moment that man or woman becomes lost.
At the end of the day, people crave change. They have this innate desire to make something of their lives, but cannot cross the line into the realm of discomfort and uncertainty. Miller’s motivation behind writing this book was to inspire. More than likely, he would be okay if someone reading his book felt guilty because of their mediocre lifestyle. Guilt is an inciting incident. It is what sparks the imagination and makes great people out of good people. A true artist will not tell the world that his or her way is the only way but that it is one way to make a difference.
Toward the end of the book, Miller claims that before he made his life a good story worth telling he had become a fatalist. He sounded more like Solomon claiming that meaning could not be found because life is meaningless. He shows regret toward his past mindset but makes up for it by supporting many organizations and mentor groups across the country. He found purpose and put a plan into motion that would not only change his life but many who come into contact with him every day. He has some amazing stories to tell people and one can imagine that he does so with passion.
The man Bob who wrote over five hundred pages of memories had great character. He did not just write what he felt or about how his day went, he wrote his story of everyone he met and touched his family’s life. Bob had met dignitaries from across the world and even inspired an annual parade in his neighborhood. He is as common as a man can be yet what sets him apart from the rest is that his life is a story worth sharing. Bob’s legacy lives on in the pages of Miller’s book. His story has now been, briefly, shared with thousands of readers across the nation and maybe the world.
All it takes to make something happen is movement. Christians need to start look to God as a master storyteller. God is the connecting point in everyone’s story. Not everyone will come to know God, but everyone will at one point in their life try searching for Him. As creation, people need to know of their creator. Monks search in solitude, explorers become pilgrims as they journey through air, sea, land, and even space, while others sit in their corner of the world and write their story by living purposefully and joyfully.
Personal Connections
I have never been a fan of Donald Miller. I started reading Blue Like Jazz one time and felt that it was a man simply complaining about what annoys him. So I was reluctant to read A Million Miles until I discovered it was about story. Story fascinates me, and I hope to become a great storyteller one day, through my own story and through the stories of the characters I create and give life through fiction. You don’t have to have a life changing event occur in order for your story to find meaning. All it takes is a step out of your front door, holding God close to your heart, and an indomitable will. Meaning is just waiting for you to grab it, so reach out and make something of yourself. The message of this book is simple and confusing because we (people in general) do not know what it means to be somebody. Blending in is comfortable. Being like everyone else is easy. I no longer wish to live a life like those poor timid souls unwilling to change. I plan on living a story worth telling, and invite anyone else along for the ride that is willing to join in on the adventure.
