Originally published on Medium.com
I have a strong belief that everything you need to know you can find in a book. Sure, we can do a quick google search which may do the trick to give you a peripheral frame of what to learn. However, picking up a book, touching its pages and having the time to truly reflect and receive an acute awareness provides a platform of learning like no other. I’m sure we all have received some type of life wisdom from non-fiction/”self-help” books. It’s not just these types of books that can uncover a truth that connects to the feelings and emotions you have. We often look to movies for this too.
I typically enjoy reading a book complimented with a nice strong cup of coffee. The smell and aroma completely compliment the feeling of presence and exploring a new world and thought process as you navigate from page to page. There are some really awful books out there. However, we can learn from them too.
What we read now is a manifesto of sorts. In times like this, we need to read more than ever to truly understand versus judge. Many of us overschedule our days and tend to complain about how busy we are. We have many connections, but when was the last time we had quality time with a best friend? Emails…social media…so much noise…no time…no quality to enjoy life for what it’s worth.
Books are perfectly suited to help us change our relationship to the patterns and habits of daily life in a world of non-stop connectivity. Books give us pause and allow us to recharge. There’s no way to interrupt a book. We can interrupt ourselves reading the pages, but they speak to us in a very unique and thoughtful way. One page at a time. A book demands attention and can uniquely set aside our own beliefs and prejudices. We are listening to someone’s voice through letters on a page. We may not necessarily agree with all of the content, but we can’t change the words that we are reading on the page. Books are a uniquely portable magic.
We tend to ask each other a lot of questions to understand who we are: “What do you like to eat?” “What movies do you like to watch?” “How are you coping with Covid?” Yes, in St. Louis, we even ask “Where did you go to high school?” There’s one question I don’t hear a lot and it’s “What are you reading right now?”
When we ask each other that question, it’s a way to connect and a real way of finding out who we are now and who we are becoming.
