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| Burgess Meredith as Henry Bemis |
Part of life for voracious readers is the nature of time. Add every other conceivable thing into the mix, and you can imagine that a lack of quality time (coupled with silence), marks the definitive challenge for erudite scholars. Books and reading are so much a part of my life, it can be disconcerting when I encounter someone who lacks the drive and curiosity to engage written material. How does one remain ignorant of the hidden intricacies of Shakespeare? Or the poems of Robert Frost and ee cummings? How about the wild, crazy, virile masculinity of Hemingway?!
Experiences captured on the page by the sharpest intellects inform us by whisking us away to other places and times, allowing the reader to walk in someone elses' shoes, feel what it is to be them and have their experiences, through the creation of a window to their world. To me, the most skilled writer is also an adept time traveller, so complete is our transportation. It also develops an enormous sense of empathy within the avid reader, and a keenness for what it means to be human.
You can imagine my terror when I meet someone who fobs off the pleasures of reading as the pursuit of an aesthete who simply chooses to escape from daily life. Such is not the case with me, though I speak only for myself, and not for every bibliophile on the planet. It has given me the ability to have insights beyond my extensive life experiences, which are rather vast for someone my age. I have been accused more than once of making up fake stories, a crasser mind would accuse me of "lying", because it was inconceivable to my listener that I could absorb so much in such a relatively short amount of time. And yet I have, and that is a fact.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who you are) I'm primarily a visual artist, and an avid photographer, so I can provide proof to corroborate most of my life stories. But, it is disheartening. After all, I consider my life to be one of learning and teaching, constantly on a quest for improvement, ever striving upwards. What does one do with the permanently stuck, sick, or close-minded, the willfully ignorant, those who choose darkness and seal their off hearts, minds, and ears to information, the kind that is truly beneficial, those helpful facts from our shared existence?
I don't have a ready answer for that. Luckily, I have become adept at making excellent decisions, snap judgments, and choices that go with my gut very quickly, so I tend to screen out that degree of intolerance from my life. It is another skill I feel blessed to have, one that was honed by many hours of observing human nature, asking questions, meeting a wide variety of people from many walks of life and regions on this earth, along with expert testimony from books, written by the best minds, and with a deft hand.
I once saw an interview with the late, great writer James Baldwin, taken place during his last years in Paris. He talked about the poverty of his birth and also the spark he felt within, despite the lack of available outlets and resources around him, and at being the only one of his kind, in his immediate environs. He explained that he made it a goal to read every book at the local free public library, in his neighborhood in Harlem, and that he knew he would come out an educated person if he did so. And he was right.
Determining who among us share that same excitement and zest, those who are lit from within with a "joie de vive", and to coax that flame into a raging fire, is tantamount to saving a life. The stereotype of the shuttered bookworm who seeks to add nothing to the experiences around them is a woefully inadequate stereotype. Reading is essential to growth. Period. If you encounter resistance, as I so often do, smile, and then hand them a book, tailored just for them. It's a gift that will last a lifetime. So, what exactly are you waiting for?
An unexamined life is not worth living.
