First, I'd like to give a big shout out to Traci. Traci, thanks for reading the blog. If you'd like your name here, please don't hesitate to not email me. I'm getting to be way too big a celebrity to write random people's names here.
Second, I had a very interesting discussion Friday night (sorry about the lack of posting) about reading and the nature of what we choose to read. Actually, it concerns any types of input. I've never been one to feel like it's ok for me NOT to read a copy of the New Yorker, or Discover, or anything else out there. And not only do I read them, I try and read them cover to cover, reading every article. The problem(?) is that every time I read one of these magazines, I always derive something interesting or some new way of looking at the world. It's kind of like who the hell am I to be deciding whether or not I should read an article based on the title, the subtitle or the first few lines. What could I be missing in the most recent story!?
But then I feel guilty, because I'm never able to keep up, what with all my busy TV watching and computer playing. Even if I could keep up, it doesn't seem like the absolute best use of my time... like the actual living of life might be just as educational. The opposing side of the argument (could you tell which side I was on?) was that any intelligence I have comes from my ability to absorb from the environment around me, not actually the environment around me. That is to say, the best I can do is surround myself with a variety of information, and I'll absorb what I can, whether or not it is a magazine, or a radio story, or whatever. Or, even better, you cannot assume that this magazine is the best use of your time anyway, so don't feel bad about not reading them.
In either case, what I actually DO spend my time doing (namely watching TV and messing around on the computer) probably is NOT the best use of my time. And, in either case, I have fairly large stacks of magazines all over the place. And I never feel bad when I finish one. However, I hate feeling guilty, so I've decided that I'm going to blissfully forget this entire discussion and clean house later this week.
D