About reading

 I never had the "childish" notion that reading isn't "cool." Rather the opposite. Reading is and always has been a vital connection with the ideas that interplay to appear as the world we live in, and how we live in it. Both non-fiction and fiction apply here, as they deal with the outer and the inner worlds, the worlds of measuarability and of meaning, and their connectivity, or lack of it. 

My personal list includes books on origins and foundational ideas. This is because if I'm going to be a functional man, not just an entertained one who consumes, it is necessary and vital to have a working knowledge of the paradigms by which people have and do live their lives. It doesn't mean I agree with them, it just means that I can account for them in my own view in terms of making observations and decisions. After all, you cant think about something you don't have an idea of, and therefore don't understand or even perceive if it is in front of you. And that is how we repeat history, or make stabs at re-inventing the wheel, yes? 

The most vital area, I feel, of reading and practical inquiry, is into how we ourselves work, as physical and mental creatures. It is pretty clear to me that most folks don't do much self inquiry of any sort, especially of the sort that leads to the possible tranformations of the awareness itself. In fact, I'd hazard that beyond some drug use of some kind, the usual individual may not even be aware of some of the possibilities of their own nature. And I'm definitely not talking about hingy-bingy new age stuff. Neither am I talking about prayer, no matter how sincere,save in one particular instance.

Another vital area, hugely neglected, is the history of our race. For instance, few know about the actual nature of money, how we got to the ideas hinted at in the Constitution, especially the separation of church and state, and the vast and complicated history of our involvement with resources and their utilization and the consequences we have imposed on ourselves and our children through that. And there is, of course, that astonishing wonder of the sheer immensity and complexity of this planet and its origins and context. 

I don't think there ever will be enough of reading and sharing. Also it is my observation that I have seen more drastic changes in understanding in my book club than I have in any church, or anywhere else, save one. We are currently going through Ken Wlber's "A Brief History of Everything." I can't recommend it enough, along with a few others. Why? Because to be a Man in the generic sense, and on of the greatest freedom and effectiveness, it is vital to know oneself. And ultimately, one's "self" cannot be separated from all that came before it and now surrounds it as the flow of time and its elegant turbulence.