Make Miracles in Forty Days by Melody Beattie

Beattie, Melody. Make Miracles in Forty Days: Turning What You Have Into What You Want. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.



Melody Beattie doesn’t guarantee that her book Make Miracles in Forty Days will deliver definitive miracles in that exact timeframe. Readers would rightly be skeptical if she did.

Beattie can sound New Age-y, referring to God, a Higher Power, and Life almost synonymously. This may be a way to acknowledge some sort of god without being too sectarian, in the manner of twelve step programs. Even so, she presents her method as something that operates on universal law, independent of religion or belief.

Her perspective on miracles is a little different, too. Miracles aren’t necessarily big. Miracles aren’t supernatural; they're natural in the sense that they are the results of universal laws. They are extraordinary, however, because they are beyond our power to bring about on our own.

These things don’t put the book too far out from its kindred on the self-help shelves. It’s not typical, though, in that Beattie turns some typical self-help concepts on their heads. It is far from your typical gratitude list. It is certainly not positive thinking. If anything, it may seem like an opportunity to indulge in the type of thinking proponents of The Secret and their ilk would have you avoid.



The heart of the method is this: express gratitude for the things for which you are least grateful. All the stuff that hurts you, negative feelings, and the things that make you nuts are candidates for these expressions of gratitude, even if you don’t feel remotely thankful.

You may have things for which you can’t say you’re thankful. That’s okay. Beattie writes about those issues.

How does this create miracles? Beattie doesn’t explain. She doesn’t seem interested in picking it apart. It came to her in a moment of inspiration, at a low time in her life, and it worked for her. It has always worked for her since. She has taught her method to a few others and it worked for them.

Part of the miracle method is that it provides permission to acknowledge and release emotions. The relief that comes from that may be a miracle to many. Maybe it provides perspective. Maybe it reveals what we truly want and don’t want so we start making better decisions. Maybe it’s magic.

There are many examples in the book. She draws on her own story and on the experiences of others. It may be hard to say they had miracles. They seem to be happier, and if gaining happiness was something beyond their own power, it fits the definition Beattie uses. Many might find happiness to be miraculous.

Melody Beattie also wrote
Gratitude

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
365 Thank Yous by John Kralik
The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith
Thanks! by Robert A. Emmons
Write It Down, Make It Happen by Henriette Anne Klaus

In contrast to this book, here are some more traditional self-help volumes
Acres of Diamonds by Russel H. Conwell
Positive Imaging by Norman Vincent Peale
The Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier
Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker
The Success Principles by Jack Canfield with Janet Switzer
You Can if You Think You Can by Norman Vincent Peale

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The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios

Kakalios, J. The Physics of Superheroes. New York: Gotham Books, 2005.

The Physics of Superheroes is a fun introduction to physics. Kakalios is a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, and childhood comic book fan, who created a freshman physics class that used examples from comic books to illustrate physics principles rather than traditional examples.

This book is not a physics textbook. For one thing, it is very light on math. Calculus was a prerequisite to the physics classes I took in college, but you can follow this book with no more math than a high school student would know. If higher math is necessary for a thorough understanding, Kakalios provides a general concept and moves on. This is a book for the nonspecialist.

Though written for a nontechnical audience, the book covers the range of physics you would find in an undergraduate physics curriculum. It moves from classical mechanics to thermodynamics to quantum mechanics. It demonstrates how seemingly esoteric and strange physical phenomena, particularly in the realm of quantum mechanics, make possible the technology that is all around us.

What makes the book entertaining is the use of comic books as sources of illustrations. Much of what is in comics is more fantasy than physics. Kakalios allows a “miracle exception” to explain the superheroes’ powers, but from their examines their feats form the point of view of solid science. Sometimes the comics get the science right.

Judging from the tone of the book, it seems that Kakalios has an affection for comic books. Though the main subject is physics, a secondary subject is the history of comics and some of their major characters. The comics fan will find something to enjoy as well as those seeking an approachable introduction to physics. Maybe it can bridge the gap between those with the button down collars and those in the Black Adam tee shirts.

This book shares something with more academic texts, namely footnotes. Kakalios’ footnotes deal more with the comics than the physics; he deals with the physics in the main text, but sometimes an explanatory note about the comics’ characters is helpful to the uninitiated. Some footnotes are tongue-in-cheek comments that lighten the tone of the more serious segments.

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