“Don Hanlon Johnson here brings together his rich history as a philosopher, ex-Jesuit, and leading Somatics scholar to address some of the major issues facing America today. In the face of the many sad commentaries on our times, this incisive, deeply felt book gives us a solid basis for hope.”

— Michael Murphy, founder of the Esalen Institute and author of The Future of the Body 

“This important book arrives at a pivotal moment in American history. Perhaps because it is conceived through an honestly told story, embodied and located, Everyday Hopes, Utopian Dreams finds a way past the cynicism so many feel today to give us a grounded vision of what a good society is and how we might best accomplish it. Placed in the Sacramento Valley and the northern coast of California, Johnson’s book regards the modern agricultural and industrial practices that are ruining the earth in the light of the religious philosophies that dominated European thought for centuries, philosophies that also separate us from our own bodies. Exploring the way these ideas, including rigid concepts about masculinity, have shaped his own life and the life of his family, he also invokes realms of human pleasure and creativity, the real sources of hope among us. And in fact, the book is a pleasure to read.”

— Susan Griffin, author of A Chorus of Stones: The Private Life of War

“In this wise and intimate reflection, Don Johnson weds personal and universal, philosophy and family, his own life and the great dance of our times. He retrieves hidden gems from his Jesuit training, reworks his own and our shared sorrows, and reimagines how we can live with the sacredness of the body. He offers us perspective, and hope.”

— Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart

“Don Johnson’s touching and often profound memoir lets us not only remember what once was and the world as he and we came to know it over past decades, but also traces the threads connecting his lifetime of quests after vision and truth to the shattered and sullied present tense that confounds so many of our current hopes and aspirations. Immersion in this plain and simple life spent taking turns never quite anticipated in advance has a lot to teach and inspire us. Always, Johnson’s vitality wins out over the despair that is never too far away. And always, there is so much more to life than it seemed at the moment it passed under the bridge. The result is a refreshing fragment of the holy, fashioned out of what might have otherwise seemed mundane.”

— David Harris, author of Crisis.