The first day of the week, the first day of a new month, and it’s actually not raining. This week, according to the weather forecasters, we will have our first taste of what the summer might bring: sunny and very warm, if not just hot. In spite of, perhaps, because of, all the craziness around us, it may be just the right time to sit down with a good book.
Almost half of us Americans have not read a book in the past year. We read, yes, or more accurately, we scroll down on our devices, moving from one troubling event to another. But how do we obtain wisdom, the ability to sift out the “facts” from what is really happening, and how do we create meaning for our lives?
At a recent book festival, several writers lamented that our attention spans have grown shorter, that we eschew fiction because we think of fiction as not being “fact.” True, one author said, but fiction brings us closer to truth in its own gentle and profound way. For wisdom, said another, we need the art of storytelling, which speaks to us even more deeply than we know. What we read – or don’t read – says a lot about us, for sure.
Prayer for the Day
Grant us pleasure in this day, Magnificent Creator,
As we breathe the cool morning spring air;
Grant us the sight to see beauty with our hearts,
And to listen to the sound of branches waving in the wind.
May we be grateful for all you have given us, O God,
And care for every living thing you created.
In the name of the One who touched his feet on the earth,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
A novelist’s job is to not shy away from questions, including difficult questions, and to open up a space of freedom and nuance and pluralism. And then you take a step back, and you leave the answers to the reader.
Elif Shafak, Turkish-British novelist
Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic human beings.
Ann Patchett, American novelist
And Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”.
And Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.
Matthew 13: 31-34