Would You Be Able to Stand on One Foot?

Photo by: Lisa Brennan, aaduna visual arts editor

While we wanted to publish an excerpt before it was officially released and the author was willing, we allowed other tasks to get in our way.  Last year, I read the finished, unedited manuscript, and received in today’s mail the softbound copy of Neal Raisman’s Standing On One Foot 70 Pieces on Death, Grief and Finding Balance in Life (The Administrator’s Bookshelf, 86 N Cassady Avenue, Columbus, OH 43209, www.adminbookshelf.com.

I have known Neal and his family since the early Nineties and knew Isaac, his son, who died at the age of 26 in 2005.  [I placed dirt on Isaac’s casket.]  The book chronicles in a very intimate and conversational way, the path Neal, his wife Aileen, and their daughter Shana were propelled to take as a result of Isaac’s unexpected passing.  It is a poignant story, one that you might not expect.

Here is a brief excerpt from the opening page:

Most books on grief and the death of a child tend to work in the mode of a journey from great pain, grief and then some sort of recovery into life. This book may not fully be one like that though it does finally get to some sort of new status in life. But maybe not a full recovery which may not exist. I am not at all sure that there is real revival or full mending from the loss of a child. If there is, I fully admit I have not yet wholly found it. ~ Neal Raisman, author

I recommend that you read this book because it is, in the “final analysis,” a testament to life, joy, appreciating the present, the ability to stand on one foot and a vibrant, intriguing read.


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