Human Beings are problem solvers. We figured out fire, it wasn’t the squirrels. Humans are different than all the other animals; we can read, whether we choose to or not is varied. I grew up like most kids in the west. I read picture books; some of these books still inspire my art to this day. Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss and Stephen Gammell still continue to fascinate me. We also grew up with television. One of the best programs was on PBS and it was called, Reading Rainbow. LeVar Burton would narrate over children’s stories. I remember the feeling of being transported via my mind through the structure of the show. The images and spoken words from the screen didn’t just wash over its audience; the young children who watched the show were able to participate in the experience. That’s often the case with great storytelling. We become steward on the journey. I think of this responsibility of stewardship as a fundamental lesson.
There is a lesson in the way we participate and consume narrative. We are the end-all-be-all of the content. It’s like the riddle: if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it does it make a sound. The riddle gets to the idea that our universe is very much in our mind. Anything out of the scope of our perception seemingly doesn’t exist. We, by default, have a myopic viewpoint of the world. In a sense, we curate the world around us (within certain limits). We are not gods who shape all of creation with our will. We have to practice to interpret the world around us. We are the ultimate steward of our life journey; we determine what kind of story we live. We participated in the stories we read as kids. Then we all grew up, and had to fight to shape our own stories within our own lives. If we were lucky we had the fundamental building blocks of values; these values help us to live better lives.
In my life I’ve read a fair amount. I’ve read fiction, non-fiction and all the genres. Sometimes authors and creators lie. Yes, you already knew that though. As you read this piece you are consciously or unconsciously asking yourself, “Is this guy full of it?”
I might be full of it, and not even be aware of it. That’s the burdensome idea here. Who knows the truth at any given moment? I can tell you that many of the classic stories tell us the truth, thus they’ve lasted the test of time. There is great wisdom in the story of Moses leading his people out of Egypt. The tale of the Loaves and Fishes in the New Testament is imbued with what we know as valuable. Our children’s books also reveal wisdom. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, gets into all sorts of ideas. It deals with the conflict of child and parent. It breaks down the terror of groupthink via the Wild Things’ blood Lust. It shows that reality is in our mind, and not necessarily physically manifested. We learn so much from narrative even if we don’t stop to reflect on it.
There is quite a bit of trouble to gain from not reflecting. I’ve repeated the same mistakes over and over again, because I didn’t open my eyes. I went about my same behavior regardless of the glaringly obvious signs. I still do repeat mistakes. All of us have blind spots. We weren’t made perfect. We were made to search for perfection, and never achieve it. The state of being is to suffer, and through suffering we grow. So, when we read a story like Where the Wild Things Are we start to discover patterns. We learn to read patterns in story. These same patterns appear in life. Art imitates life; life imitates art. It’s a loop that has existed since the cave paintings if not before.
Our consciousness responds to stimuli, and we react to it. I went through much of my young life reading lies, and not being able to identify them. The New York Times was the first paper I read as a kid. There was a point in Brooklyn, as I lived across from the Marcy Projects, that I realized that the paper was not truthful. Now, I know what you’re thinking. I’m not saying that Breitbart is truthful by default. I appreciate that Breitbart willingly admits its bias, whereas The New York Times believes it’s gospel. That’s where I’m getting at.
We are the arbiters of truth. We need to exercise our brains in order to determine the truth. The truth is elusive. It’s hard to come by. Lies can be like a hit of heroine. It’s an unbelievable high, but totally destructive. School never taught me how to balance a checkbook; it never taught me how to have skills for a job; it taught me how to shut up, listen and do what I’m told. Now, some of that is important. Mostly, I think it’s a huge waste of time to sit in a chair for six hours a day learning to conform. I grew up in the 90’s. In the 90’s we had more diverse speech then we have today. Most of the youth of today think only one way, because they haven’t had any other ideas presented to them. Even Jerry Seinfeld won’t go on college campuses to perform. Seinfeld is a clean comic, but comedy is seemingly dead now. Laughter is a cure for untruth. Radical Islamists don’t want Muhammad drawn in a cartoon; or they’ll shoot up Charlie Hebdo. The Catholic Church was fuming over South Park’s recent episode that ridiculed the child rape scandal.
There is a psychotic groupthink that is pervasive. We need to work doubly hard to read truth. When we confront lies we need to read into them. We can’t take our reality for granted. We can’t look away at the stories we read daily. Now is the time when we put our reading to the test; we need to weigh the merit of what is being said. We need to weigh the merit of the stories (fiction and non-fiction), comedy and what the institution tells us. We’ve read for our whole lives. Now, we need to the take the lessons of Reading Rainbow to the next level. We need to engage in order to discover the world through reading. Don’t take for granted that what you’re reading is true. Even doubt everything you just read here! Through reading and participating in the act we gain everything; we gain our freedom.