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THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE FriesenPress, 2014 When Father Bao finds an abandoned newborn, shades of his own past come back to haunt him. While the police search for the child’s parents, Bao struggles with how to better serve his community, despite detractors from within his own parish. The gritty realities of urban life expose the hidden biases that threaten to tear his congregation and the community apart. In The Necessities of Life, Gordon Self reflects on contemporary social justice issues to tell a story of Vancouver’s troubled Downtown Eastside that glows with humanity, dignity, and compassion. Far from abandoning those in greatest need, Self shows how we each have a burden to bear, and that beyond social differences is a shared humanity that binds us together. |
Gordon Self on The Necessities of Life:
"I was inspired to write this story to help raise public awareness and greater outpouring of compassion to support some of the most vulnerable persons in society today.
Informed by my work in health care with colleagues in Edmonton and Vancouver, I wanted to address the issue of abandonment, which I believe is one of the greatest moral issues of our time. The various characters all deal with abandonment on some level: in leaving behind a baby; confronting the impending loss of a father to dementia; facing the loneliness within a strained marriage; or overcoming judgement and disdain towards those who drug seek as a means to escape unimaginable pain in their lives.
While fictional, these are characters we have all known who have a face and a name; our neighbours deserving of compassion, not judgement and condemnation.
I invite your comments, and sincerely hope this story stirs your own moral imagination to creatively reach out to our hurting neighbours."
-Gordon Self, October 2014
"I was inspired to write this story to help raise public awareness and greater outpouring of compassion to support some of the most vulnerable persons in society today.
Informed by my work in health care with colleagues in Edmonton and Vancouver, I wanted to address the issue of abandonment, which I believe is one of the greatest moral issues of our time. The various characters all deal with abandonment on some level: in leaving behind a baby; confronting the impending loss of a father to dementia; facing the loneliness within a strained marriage; or overcoming judgement and disdain towards those who drug seek as a means to escape unimaginable pain in their lives.
While fictional, these are characters we have all known who have a face and a name; our neighbours deserving of compassion, not judgement and condemnation.
I invite your comments, and sincerely hope this story stirs your own moral imagination to creatively reach out to our hurting neighbours."
-Gordon Self, October 2014
REVIEWS
“At times raw and shocking in its earthy realism, at other times moving and touching in its treatment of intimate human moments, this book will be a gripping read for the thinking soul."
Tim Frymire
Winnipeg, Manitoba
"In 'The Necessities of Life', author Gordon Self challenges readers to a deeper understanding of the complexity of the very real and raw personal issues in our communities – brilliantly weaving these with an invitation to check our own inner spiritual polarities. It is a powerful story of circumstances, values, moral judgments, ambiguities and unintended consequences."
Suzette Mackey
Edmonton, Alberta
PURCHASE
Direct from the producer
Hardcover and Softcover
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Ebook
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