I read quite a bit. I read books, have two magazine subscriptions (Popular Mechanics and Archeology) and read a lot of online content. I like reading. I enjoy fiction, history, science, even politics; Whatever I can put my hands on. It’s the way I was raised. My parents, neither of them college graduates, read constantly, even when the TV was on! As a child, of course I saw my parents doing that, and so I did it as well. My best memory as a child was not the day I received my drivers license, but when my Mother took me to the library to get a Library Card, in my name. I think I was six.

I’ve tried to pass that on. There are times my own daughter will come into the living roon, the TV on, and see me sitting here readiing something (I normally buy Kindle books nowadays, so it’s on my iPad) and she’ll ask me, “What are you reading?” Lately it’s been a book about the possibility that the Apostle Paul, was a fictive person. I have no idea whether that is true or not, but I like the book. It raises intriguing questions about the existence of the most prolific writer of the New Testament.

It’s reading though. Whether you think my current endeavor is worthwhile or not. I hope I’m passing this love to the very person that I care more about than anything else in my life. I think I have, but she’s 13, so we’ll see.I’ve noticed that, even being out of school, I can fond that she’s reading something all the time. I don’t care, in general, the content, The idea is to read, read, read. I try to read at least one book per week. I’m poor at obtaining that goal, but I think it’s probably one every two weeks on average. Think about that for a moment. How many books do you read in a year, for pleasure?

Reading engages your mind. Instead of watching Tv shows or movies that leave nothing to the imagination, books do the opposite. It was a dark and stormy night… remember Snoopy from the Peanuts comic sitting on his doghouse typing that out? Reading prompts the imagination, brings memories of maybe when we, ourselves went through a dark and stormy night, and for every reader, the experience is differently.

Reading is how we learn. No teacher can have you appreciate an author, whether in grade school or as an undergraduate at university more than yourself. Sure, they may assign something to be read, but it’s the individual that takes something away from that experience. If thry’re willing, which it seems to often today, most do not. Sad. It seems that most are more interested in the pronouns used to address them than the beauty of words written, a dozen,  or a hundred or more years ago.Classic works are being left out of curricula because they may be sexist or racist.  That’s a shame that we decide today, what people in the past have written that don;t conform to our “modern norms”.

Reading brings a level of enlightenment that we can’t get from television, radio, games, or anywhere else. For we atheists, how many Christians do you know that have read the bible from Genesis to Revelation?  Few, right? How about reading the the real history of your own country? For my English friends that may be unaware,  Oliver Cromwell was actually a tyrant. Where did I learn this? Reading. We can learn a lot about ourselves and our history, just by picking up a book. Think it’s just fiction? Read carefully.

We’ve become less attuned to society and culture because all we see is what is presented to us via the black box (television). We have an opportunity to escape the propaganda we’re fed by simply sitting down and instead of allowing others to tell us what we should be, exploring the actual diversity that exists where we may become a better informed public.