Each year I "submit" myself to a mentor (in addition to God) and study from their words each day and try to incorporate the wisdom they offer into my life. This year that mentor is Seneca, in the form of his moral letters to Lucilius. On only the second day of this mentorship, in his second letter, Seneca addresses reading with a strongly worded letter including the following quote, "Be careful lest the reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends up having many acquaintances, but no friends. And the same thing must hold true of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author, but visit them all in a hasty and hurried manner." He goes on an elaborates, but you get the idea.
Okay...I will admit that the first time I read this letter, I scoffed, major eye rolling. However, it will not leave me alone, my brain won't let it rest. My soul reminds me constantly that I cannot demand that my children and students submit to mentors if I am not willing to do the same. So...I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna read a far fewer variety of authors and take a few authors to a place of depth this year. This is proving to be far more difficult than I anticipated. I need some accountability so I am putting this out there and posting to my fellow Facebook book junkie groups so that they can hold my feet to the fire when my flibbertigibbet self goes running after every pretty cover displayed at the library. (If you are in one of the groups that I report to regularly or if you are a part of my physical life, please feel free to scold and reprimand as I wander.)
I have to admit that, as I've made preparations to follow Seneca's admonition, other scattered areas of my life have become more stable, clear, and uncluttered. In fact, I find that I am getting chills quite frequently as I realize that bringing reading, my greatest passion, into a place of order is likely going to have an intense effect on my entire world. I hope to report back on this as I think this could be quite huge. In the meantime, I'm curious, what "limited number of master thinkers" would you invite in if this challenge were presented to you? I REALLY want to know!
V. P. Weirwille used to challenge us by saying that "if you read nothing but the church epistles for three months, you won't recognize yourself" after that. Or something to that effect. Most of us took him up on that and read hardly anything but the Bible (mostly the epistles) for years on end! It was true, and now it's enjoyable to read other things, but often difficult as well, because so much contradicts what the Bible tells me. I listen to teachings from two other ministries now: Beloved of God, and True North Ministries. I've learned so much from both of them, and have no problem submitting to Mark and Larry's wisdom for the most part. It might be fun to get deeper into Emerson and Thoreau.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fascinating idea. I have used character qualities as a study and looked for examples in all I read. I do remember as a young 20 something reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography and then reading books he'd read and using his character chart idea. I will give this some more thought.
ReplyDeleteIt is not easy! I am 3.5 months in and I am really having to work hard to keep myself from roaming!
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