****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
My wish for everyone about to read this book is that they might keep their expectations and preconceptions to a minimum. Some reviewers here seem to have come to this book in anticipation of a detailed instruction manual on how to live off the grid. I would argue that this book is much more valuable and accessible precisely because it does not deal with details but rather with the spirit of honest reflection that is at the true heart of personal development. I can appreciate that the book is perhaps easily mistaken for one of many recent ecological/sustainability offerings, since much of the book concerns living with a smaller carbon footprint sans electricity, heating, etc. However, that is all the price of admission into deeper contemplations. This book is a conservationist work in the sense that Gandhi's work is inherently conservationist, or why intelligent business practice is inherently conservationist--it looks to the roots of why we even need conservationists in the first place; what is it that leads people to think in such short-sighted terms as to knowingly guarantee their own extinction by plundering their resources in exchange for a way of life that doesn't lead to happiness anyway? The answer to that is fundamentally connected to the reasons why we pursue other futile solutions to problems, and is even connected to the fact that we as humans believe that there are such things as problems in the first place.The author initially has many questions about how to go about saving the world, how to be more green, how to take a hot shower without heat. Dr. Jackie Benton, the author's mentor and owner of the 12x12, is for the most part quiet when it comes to answering him. Questions are universal, but answers are limiting and inhibiting. The intriguing thing about this book is that it won't make a lot of sense to many Americans because it is speaking precisely to that American condition of consumerist apathy. It may very well be like lucidly talking about mania to a manic individual, or about quitting drugs to someone who is already strung out. What helps is the author's own honesty. I disagree with other reviewers who say the author is preachy. He asks his own questions, and I must say he shows a high degree of integrity and clarity in doing so. He clearly wishes his readers to reflect for themselves; otherwise he might have just written simple instructions on how to live life the way he sees fit without all the probing discussion.This is now my favorite book. I think it's a work to be celebrated and commended. Its subtlety is utterly satisfying and the writing is excellent but accessible and understated. This book moves beyond the anxiety we all have been feeling with regards to how our western lifestyles directly impact the lives of the rest of the planet's people, because anxiety and guilt are not going to help anybody. Anxiety and guilt are egocentric in the sense that you are focused on your own faults and mistakes; habitually thinking about oneself is vanity in its broadest sense; if you're thinking of yourself, you can't be thinking about helping others. Guilt is a trick the mind plays on the self in order to prolong inaction. Twelve By Twelve is a fine compass to hold in one's hand as we each attempt to cross the border into a more authenticate and fulfilled existence.
