One Man's Thoughts

Being a reader in todays culture really does feel like coming from an entirely different country. Perhaps even, a whole world altogether different. There are some who, upon realizing that I do not read because I have to but because I want to, believe that there must be something seriously wrong with me. There are many different types of ‘reading,’ and I realize technology has allowed for the dissemination of information like never before. But I am talking about settling down in a favorite chair or under a familiar tree and committing to sitting down with words on paper, perhaps having a favorite beverage close at hand, while undergoing the discipline of spending entire afternoons or nights wrapped up in the imaginative process that is conjured in one’s mind due to the intense intimacy that one has with this type of stimuli.

For my own sake, I believe a man should explain himself if he is going to go through the trouble of reading something–especially a work of non-fiction. A man who reads and fills his mind with thoughts and contemplation should share it with the class, as it were. He should share it in a way that is coherent and can be understood by many minds. Instead of being puffed up about my choice to read, should I not rather use my hobby to benefit my fellowman? Should my fellowman read also? I highly encourage the discipline. Yet I am happy to oblige him for the following reason that has been constantly pressing upon my mind:

There might be a one who finds my books and sees that I have written page numbers in the back (as is my habit) due to places I have found interesting during the course of my imaginative labors, and want to come back to (often forgetting to do so). The one says “Why, what do these numbers mean?” Another, close by might have a look and deduce, “They are parts the stood out to him.” Still a third comes over and takes a look and heaves a great sigh and says, “yes, but what did they mean to him? It is all well and good that they interested him, they do me as well. But what does it mean? Could he not have spent the time to explain himself and perchance have given us some insight into the situation that none of us have thought of beforehand and thus helped us along in our own journeys of life?”

Perhaps this scenario will never unfold. It might very well be that my name only becomes associated with the great throng of the masses unknown. But because I do read, where many seem to not want to, and because I do take time in the pursuit of study as to the knowing of my own mind about particular things read, where many seem to not know their minds about many sorts of things in this life, let alone reading…it seems that there might be a, I am hesitant to call it a gift, but at the very least, situation in which I find myself where I might think in a manner that is deeply introspective in which to bring out into the light the very thing that many others have been thinking but did not know the paths to take to get to the thing that they didn’t even have a name for…and now do.

I feel a special type of obligation to my fellowman to search out various things that stand out in my readings for this very reason.