Researchers at the Yale University School of Public Health say they have found a link between longevity and reading books. Evidently, people who spend at least 3.5 hours each week engrossed in a book were 17 percent less likely to die in the twelve years following the study and those who spend more than3.5 hours per week were 23 percent less likely to die in the same period. Even after adjusting the data for education, wealth, and other variables, the advantage remained the same.
There didn’t seem to be a cause and effect relationship according to the study, but if we consider what happens when we read, it makes sense. Certainly in novels, even short stories and poetry, we are transported out of our own preoccupations with ourselves; instead, we enter new landscapes of more than thinking, but of being.
Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s epic The Odyssey has inspired people who normally wouldn’t read ancient Greek poetry to read this more than 12,000 line poem, a sequel, as it were, to The Iliad. More than an adventure story, it reflects our search for meaning, not giving answers but opening us to the questions we ought to ask as we sail the wind-dark sea of our lives.
Prayer for the Day
Holy One, we live in a time of uncertainty,
For we find that relying on only ourselves just doesn’t work;
We are afraid not only of the changing world around us
But of where our questions sometimes lead us.
Help us, Merciful One, to be open to the unexpected,
For we feel adrift like boats without rudder on a vast and open sea.
In the name of the One who lived to bring us hope,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist, writer (1803-1882)
Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.
Anna Quindlen, American journalist, from How Reading Changed My Life
Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear,
Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book, it is written of me.
I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
Psalm 40: 6-8