William Rahner
I’m a dilettante with a lot of focus; very wide interests and tastes, and I love art, music and science way too much for one lifetime. For books you can never go wrong with the classics. I love pretty much the whole canon, and different authors swept me away at different times in my life. Modern authors can be great too. A good way to start is to pick up the Pulitzer winners, any one of them. For a more specific list, scan the titles on the bookshelf in Captain Swift’s cabin the way Cmdr. Avery does in Chapter 3 of my own modest contribution.
As a neurology professor I find the arts to be very intimate. At this moment, my thoughts are your thoughts. Hi there. By the same process the thoughts of Marcus Aurelius, William Shakespeare and Annie Lennox have joined my thoughts. A very august company can be our friends, our guides, our companions from down through the ages. But intimacy takes effort - you have to pay attention, and that’s where so many fail. Even if you’re reading trash (fill in your own titles) you still have to use your imagination, which is harder than playing video games or watching TV. These dull the mind to such a point that some people actually watch Fox news and think that it’s for real!
When I was a kid everybody on the subway was reading, developing their minds whether they wanted to or not, and people were smarter. Sadly, if given the choice, many people choose not to develop their minds and get sucked into the electronic opiates forever, and they get stupid. This is a terrible waste of potential. What a loss for them. What a loss for everyone, because they are unquestioning and easily lead and they can still vote! What a brave new world that has such people in it.
I think this has always been the case, but modern entertainment really makes it easy to not think. On the other hand, the internet also makes learning easier for people who want to think and there have always been, and will always be, people who carry the torch of enlightenment. It’s harder no doubt, but so much more fulfilling. Since you’ve read this far, I figure you to be a torchbearer. Good. Live life to the fullest. Never stop learning. Never stop doing. Never stop feeling.
