Friday, August 21, 2009

I'm Back, I'm Back

Missed my chance to write yesterday as my son was working the bugs out of my computer and fell asleep while something was downloading. Not one to interrupt a genius at work, decided to leave it go for a day.

Haven't caught up on posts yet but enjoyed your comments, thanks for telling me what nightwatch means-I can stop envisioning people on street corners with night vision goggles. AND, I may have to take up the new 'conk your head, get some Staples money, do it again' method of getting a new computer. Honestly, even with son's hard work, it takes me more effort to get in, get back in, etc than I spend on time on line. All right, all right, I exaggerate, call it the Friday giddiness.

aADave (I don't spell it right if I'm not looking at it) asked what's wrong with reading a couple days ago. Personally, I have decades of practice hiding in it, just like some people with TV or video games, I can spend hours of the day numbing out. Granted it is a victimless crime, not as unhealthy as numbing out with vodka or porn probably.

And guess who knows this? Julia Cameron, recovering alcoholic, successful writer of many things including The Artist's Way, A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. I've played with the book (bookbookbook, of course I know the book) before but don't remember page 87 where she proposes READING DEPRIVATION she describes as

'casts us into our inner silence, a space some of us begin to immediately fill with new words--long, gossipy conversations, television binging, the radio as a constant, chatty companion . . . we often cannot hear our own inner voice . . . even thinking about it (not reading) can bring up enormous rage . . . we gobble the words of others rather than digest our own thoughts and feelings.'

Food for Thought. During the last couple days I have tried reading less often for shorter intervals and I can hardly stand it. She calls it an addiction.

We do not want to do the things that will help us, heard at a AA mtg by a gentleman who did not stay too long. What's good about today is that there is not only abundance all around us but also wisdom if we can hear it.

4 comments:

  1. Really interesting post. I hadn't thought much about not hearing my inner voice when I spend so much time reading the words of others. I wonder if I doing the same when I am writing a story in a voice that isn't my own. Food for thought.

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  2. I adore reading, eat it up - if I am on a bus or a train, or having a lazy day - the book is nearby and I am in another world.

    I cannot imagine giving that up!

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  3. Oh geez, forgot to say: Welcome back!

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