Grand Prize Shortlist, Eric Hoffer Book Award
Finalist, First Horizon Award
Finalist, The Montaigne Medal
“Brian will remind you that our goal is not to create a life without problems, but instead to discover how to be fully engaged in our lives.” -Alanis Morissette, singer-songwriter & 7-time Grammy winner
“A postgraduate course on how to live in love with this crazy wonderful Life. I'll read it again and again.” -Steve Gleason, Former NFL player - New Orleans Saints & founder of Team Gleason
"Joyful, thought-provoking...for virtually anyone looking for better insights on how to construct and navigate life.“ -Midwest Book Review
Onward Forward is a book Brian Jeansonne would have written eventually. He wrote it now because ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, confined him to a power chair, silenced his voluntary muscles, and urged him to focus more deeply than ever on life’s most essential questions. In this heartfelt and irreverent memoir, Brian chronicles the disease process while exploring metaphysical, spiritual, and emotional concepts such as soul, suffering, contentment, presence, and—most importantly—love.
As both narrator and soul guide, Brian writes with raw honesty about the arc of his own faith, as well as difficult periods of depression. He asks and answers life’s most difficult but essential questions:
- What is God?
- Why do we suffer?
- How can we best live alongside each other?
- What does it mean to be content?
- How can we do better by ourselves and others?
- What’s the role of a parent? A spouse?
- Are Jesus and rock-and-roll compatible?
- What can we learn from Ted Lasso?
Beginning with a foreword by fellow soul-seeker Alanis Morissette, Onward Forward is an invitation to fully engage with life, to embrace “the good, the bad, and the shitshow,” and to run toward our truest selves with abandon.
