Wrapping it up

Jacobs realized early on that it was impossible to follow all 700 or so rules that he found in the Bible everyday. He had to pick which ones to follow at different times. He uses the term "cafeteria" to describe this picking, and explains that even fundamentalist Christians and Jews are following a cafeteria brand of their religion. One cannot follow all the rules, and many of them are contradictory or open to interpretation. Even after a year of trying to follow all the rules at least part of the time, he realizes there are some he never got to. He does, however, realize that he gained much during his quest and learned quite a bit about himself and to how to be a better person. He becomes more self-reflective, empathetic, and grateful. The book was a good reminder for me to work on these three attributes. I am glad that I could learn this simply by reading the book, rather than going through what Jacobs did.