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At his trial for impiety and corrupting youth in ancient Greece, Socrates is reputed to have said; "The unexamined life is not worth living." The legendary philosopher believed that a life devoid of introspection, self-reflection, and critical thinking is essentially meaningless and lacks value.
This sentiment provides context for Clocking the Goose, a memoir of short stories about growing up and getting over it, by Robert Moseley.
The stories in Clocking the Goose illuminate the struggles of childhood, bring insight to the process of individuation, and provide an offbeat, alternative perspective on figuring out and fulfilling personal destiny.
As these narratives reveal, the process of discovering and actualizing personal potential necessitates trial and error. Mistakes and missteps are as crucial to becoming a fully realized human being as the positive choices and the successful actions a person takes.
If becoming fully human and alive is the reader's cup of tea, which is the core motivation driving Moseley's missives, he or she must endure inner contradictions that can be tormenting but necessary to make one mindful that human beings can do horrific as well as magnificent things at any time.
What emerges from these stories is the realization that Moseley wasn't so afraid of making mistakes or of his shadow self, as he was of failing to become wholly himself and fully alive.
Starting with his volatile, reactive and painful childhood, the stories in Clocking the Goose take the reader from sad and funny childhood struggles common to us all and the challenges of adolescence and young adulthood, to gaining a mature perspective on what being human is all about.
Self-knowledge, self-acceptance, forgiveness and redemption are essential themes that run throughout the book.
In tandem to the stories themselves, the pre and post story elements of this memoir provide social context to the author's personal struggles. Here, Moseley weighs in with his views on social media, the Woke movement, and America's corporatized culture in ways that make his personal journey culturally relevant.
The emotional thrust of this memoir is that the business of becoming a human being in full is a harrowing and humbling process. Becoming conscious that saintly and savage traits eternally coexist within all individuals has the potential to transform or destroy us depending on the choices we make and the responsibility we take in creating our lives.
Being mindful of this, hopefully, makes us more tolerant and compassionate towards our failings and the foibles of others.
From a social perspective this memoir is framed in the viewpoint that modern America has been coopted by a corporate mind-set and an immature, unconscious and often rapacious social media culture that truncates our humanity.
At the end of the day, Clocking the Goose affirms the value of individuation, and of embracing the light and darker angels of human nature with grace and forgiveness.
