A Taoist in Rural Illinois , livre ebook

Xlibris US - Daniel Nardini

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29 pages

English

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This book is a personal journey of the author to find a faith which would give him meaning to both his life and an understanding of life beyond just existing day to day. Along his life's journey he experienced different religions. While he found them fascinating, they did not help fulfill his desire to feel that there was something beyond oneself and being grounded in rigid dogma. It was by happenstance that he came across Taoism from people who became a part of his life when he needed help the most. Their acceptance of him and their kindness and generosity changed his perception of people and of life as a whole. During all that time they asked for nothing of him in return. This act of not asking for the author to join their faith convinced Mr. Nardini that this was the faith he had been searching for. Mr. Nardini has taken this faith back to his native Illinois.

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Publié par	Xlibris US
Date de parution	09 octobre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781669850625
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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A TAOIST IN RURAL ILLINOIS
Daniel Nardini

Copyright © 2022 by Daniel Nardini.

Library of Congress Control Number:
2022918662
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-5064-9

Softcover
978-1-6698-5063-2

eBook
978-1-6698-5062-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/06/2022

Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
847661
Contents
Dedication
What A Life
Growing Up With Atheist Parents
Searching for a Religion
The Kindness of Strangers
My Growing Personal Relationship with Taoism
My Other Mentor Mr. Wang
Conversion
Moving to Rural Illinois
Remaining a Vegetarian
Locked Into a Faith
Creeping Extremism in Religion
God, Guns and Beer
Small Industrial City Illinois
Our Ever-changing World
The Beauty That is Rural Illinois
My Life Has Been Full of Miracles
Dedication
I dedicate this memoir to my friend Alex and the Lai family who befriended me for the years I lived with them. I also wish to dedicate this book to my close friend Mr. Wang in South Korea who pointed the way for my understanding of Taoism as well as Buddhism. Finally, I wish to dedicate this book to the wonderful people of Illinois.
What A Life
In so many ways I feel I lived through several lifetimes rather than one. In the beginning, I grew up in a middle class American suburban family environment in the Chicago area. As I grew up in such a setting, my perspective then was that this would be my life going forward. When I reached 30, my life changed abruptly. I went to live and work as an English teacher in Taiwan. Not only did I live in Taiwan, I lived on a farm in a village not far from Taichung City where I worked. It was an incredible experience I shall always remember. Not long after this I found myself in Seoul, South Korea, where I was again employed as an English teacher. Although my stint as an English teacher was much shorter than in Taiwan, it still had a profound effect on my life, and it was in South Korea I met my future wife Jade. After East Asia, I got a job as a newspaper correspondent and then as editor at Lawndale News in Cicero, Illinois, where I worked for the next 20 years. Towards the end of my career as a journalist, I briefly worked as a newspaper correspondent for The Fulton Journal for two years. This remains the town newspaper for the Mississippi River town of Fulton, Illinois.
Just as my career journey was far from clear, my journey towards religious enlightenment was also far from clear. I began life as an atheist. Having grown up with atheist parents, I became convinced that their view of the world was the correct one. I had seen the world through their lens on life. They had after all grown up at a tumultuous period in American history (i.e. the Great Depression), and so I had at first believed they knew the answers to life. But, as I grew older, I felt that there was more to life than just having enough food to eat, a good job, a nice home in a nice neighborhood, dreaming about going on vacation to get away from the drudgery of work, and saving up enough money for retirement. In their view, religion was “bunk” and had no place in their lives. I completely understood where they were coming from. However, I felt that something was missing in my life, and I began a long journey to find that meaning until I came upon unexpectedly the faith that clicked in my hungry knowledge for some meaning; Taoism. Taoism, along with Buddhism, is part of my love for just about everything Chinese (and later Korean) from Chinese food to Chinese history, Chinese architecture, Chinese culture, the Chinese language(s), Chinese religion and Chinese philosophy. Taoism is an indigenous Chinese belief that has had a profound impact not only on China but indirectly in Korea, Vietnam and Japan as well.
The next part of my journey was moving from the Chicago area to rural Illinois. This is where I have been for the last 20 plus years of my life, and where I have retired to. The Village of Chadwick (as it is officially called), is a town of 550 people nestled in the corn belt. The three closest towns to it are Mount Carroll (the county seat), Milledgeville, and the smaller town of Argo Fay. Bringing myself and my faith to a place so full of “traditional values” and far from anything and everything I had known before was a challenge in of itself. In so many ways it is still a challenge.

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