Learning to Read

I'd like to credit Mark Zuckerberg for creating all the evil in the world, but I can't. Despite philanthropy
that may be as disingenuous as his awkward smile (sorry, Z -- you're an easy target), he can't be
blamed for everything that's wrong with western society. Because, truly, while lollygagging (or lurking)
on social media swallows too much of our time, before Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Snapchat,
we had mind-numbing reality television, and before that, Pacman and Donkey Kong with our best
friends at Straw Hat Pizza. Or was that just me? Anyway, the art of wasting time has antecedents in
the 20th century and, I'm sure, the 19th and 18th, etc.
The admonition to live in the moment has become so ubiquitous that it seems trite, even cliché. And
yet it's not. We all know not to take a moment of our lives for granted, but we don't always realize or
recognize how best to live those moments, how to appreciate each one, how to create richness when
we're not occupied by the sometimes unfortunate "serious adult things.” ( St. Exupery)
Everyone has a different view of happiness and people find diverging activities fulfilling, but I think I
may have the best time-filling-time-engaging recommendation: we should read. We should partake in
some old-fashioned, old-school joy and entertainment and learning. Instead of wasting time on social
media pondering how someone achieved the perfect selfie or discovered just the right lighting --
because wow, her skin looks great -- we could pick up a book and let our imaginations lead us into
 worlds created by words.
My favorite book is The Little Prince -- hence the St. Exupery reference above -- but my favorite writer
is Jonathan Franzen. The Corrections hasn't left me since I read it ten years ago, and since then, I
haven't stumbled upon a writer who can match Franzen's lyricism and beauty and ability to create
precise images with just the right details or metaphors. To my eyes, he is one of the greatest literary
figures of the 20/21st centuries. His words transport readers to a place where cadence and color
can inform the mundane or explode the fundamental moments of the human experience. In short,
he is my hero.

But thousands of other beautiful writers exist and have existed around the world, and fiction isn't
the only genre worth reading -- it's just my preference. Exploring essays and poetry and news articles
(as long as they're not fake news - thank you, Z) is a great way to learn and to engage with the world
in our free time. Through words, whether found in a self-help book or a Russian novel, we can be
transported, we can connect with the world both internal and external, we can live in the moment.




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