THE TREEHOUSE: ECCENTRIC WISDOM FROM MY FATHER ON HOW TO LIVE, LOVE, AND SEE, by Naomi Wolf, Simon & Schuster, 278 pages, $24.
Naomi Wolf became famous when she wrote "The Beauty Myth" while still in her 20s. It was a landmark book about the ways in which women are objectified by our culture — Wolf suggested that the 20th century women's movement had been blindsided.
Now, as she enters her 40s, Wolf has written a much different book — one dedicated to the wisdom of her unusual father, Leonard Wolf, a still-handsome, 6-feet-2-inch lifetime teacher now in his early 80s. In "The Treehouse," she calls him "a wild old visionary poet," whose main theme has always been to "follow your heart's creative wisdom."
Leonard does not own a cell phone, has no personal organizer and, like most men, has never been given to asking directions. Despite Naomi's best efforts, he still does not understand compound interest. It's not important to him. Instead, he asks such questions as, "Why should you accept that your life will never call upon you to navigate by the stars?"
Naomi writes, "He believes that each of us arrived here with this unique creative DNA inside us. He believes that no amount of money or recognition can compensate you if you are doing your life's passionate creative work; and if you are not doing it, you had better draw everything to a complete stop until you can listen deeply to your soul, identify your true heart's desire, and change direction. It's that urgent."
She begins the book with Leonard accepting her invitation to build a treehouse for his granddaughter, over a period of six months. It is during this grandfatherly project that Naomi hears some of the same wisdom with which she grew up, things she vaguely remembers but never fully understood. Now she realizes that, to her father, "the creative act is the secret of joy."
Naomi becomes so interested in Leonard's wisdom that she decides to plumb his mind for other things. She is interested in knowing the kinds of things he has spent 60 years teaching to college students in poetry and creative writing, mostly at San Francisco State University. So she persuades him to break out his lecture notes, and they talk about them.
From those conversations she has organized this book into 12 basic lessons from her father, such as "Be still and listen" and "Speak in your own voice." Perhaps his greatest emphasis is on "Do nothing without passion."
As Naomi writes, "My dad has been pursuing the permanent courtship of my mother since they met. To Leonard, marriage is not the end of courtship, or time to drop the strategy; every day of married life is a chance to pursue the girl afresh."
This is a thought-provoking book — not just because it calls attention to the wisdom of Leonard Wolf, who fascinates, but because it reaches out for the wisdom of those who have more experience because they have lived longer.
It makes you think you should take advantage of the thoughts of your own aging parents and grandparents and reach out for their unique insights.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com