Things that Matter

But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling, like dew, upon a thought produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think. – Lord Byron

There was a day in which information was passed largely through oral communications. Word-of-mouth predominated. A teacher’s disciples sat around him as he taught. Gutenberg’s invention changed this significantly, opening the way for written media like books, pamphlets, and newspapers to move significant amounts of information to large numbers of persons who might never have heard the speaker or even lived in the same place or time. Consider that we probably have greater access to works of Plato, Cicero, and other ancient writers than did their contemporaries.

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Written communication brought certain advantages, which we can summarize by saying that it provided great flexibility. Not only was physical presence no longer necessary, a reader was not limited to the speaker’s talking speed. Persons can typically read faster than persons can speak intelligibly. On the other hand, readers can slow, even stop, to analyze, ponder, or reflect in greater depth. A listener doing the same thing would generally miss whatever the speaker was saying at time. Readers can take their books with them, reading where audible conversations are impermissible, or at least impolite. Finally, books could provide depth that would require a series of lectures that would have to be spread over many days, which would be impractical for many listeners. Unfortunately, many are not taking advantage of the opportunities, it seems. I recently read an article citing statistics indicating that reading is in decline. While we cannot change this for others, but we can for ourselves. Thus, I would like us to consider three aspects of our reading: whether, what, and how we read.

Whether We Read

As a reader of this post and (presumably) other blogs, it seems unlikely that you need to be convinced of the need to read. If you are like me, the issue is not the abstract issue of whether I should read (at all) but rather the concrete issue of whether, at a certain point of time, I will choose to read instead of engaging in other activities. In struggling with this, I encounter challenges relating to discipline and distraction.

The first major challenge relates to discipline, or more specifically, inadequate personal discipline. Few of us need a reminder to eat. God has given us a sense of hunger that reminds us of the need to eat and urges us to go do it. In contrast, we have no corresponding instinct impelling us to read, and consequently, we need to cultivate the discipline of reading. Personally, I am still working on that.

When I was young, I read voraciously. Looking back, I would say that it was out of a sense of desire. I loved it. As I grew, I found an ever increasing amount of reading tied to external requirements, first with school’s significant reading assignments and later with work-related needs (the reading that is a practical prerequisite to getting the job done). The discipline that I learned was not of reading itself but rather of fulfilling the school/work/church requirement. What I have recognized in hindsight was an increasing dependence on the existence of such external requirements so that, when there was no requirement, I was less and less likely to get to reading. My personal reading suffered. I am now having to cultivate the discipline of personal reading.

The second danger that I encounter is a combination of distractions. I am using this term in a broad sense, not merely of bad, dangerous, or trivial things. Maybe it would be better to say competing demands. Even the normal responsibilities of life contribute to this. I spend weekdays at the office (I need to earn a living), I teach my children most evenings (we homeschool), and I need to eat and sleep. These things and others limit my personal time.

When I get into personal time, I have a tendency to want to “relax” and turn to various amusements. Computer games can be a distraction. Once it was Minesweeper, another time it was Pinball, and so forth. I finally concluded that, rather than constantly fighting the temptation, it was wiser for me to just uninstall the software. I kept my Sudoku software on the notion that it required “brain work” that had some value, but after finding that I was spending more time than I concluded was warranted, I uninstalled it, too.

There is also competition from other media. For example, our world has a current fascination with visual media. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but that helps little when the matters to be described or discussed are not readily pictured. Pictures can even be an impediment when ideas are the key. In addition, the computer can also be a competing medium. I find that it can become a distraction, becoming an end in itself rather than a means, i.e., a tool for reaching the desired end. Although I can find some good things to read on the computer, some are much less than optimal. That leads to a consideration of what we read, which I intend to address in the next installment.