Franz Kafka said, “we ought to read only books that bite and sting us.” What’s the last thing you read that bit and stung you?
When was the last time I borrowed a book from the library? It was such a long time ago. There is a period in my life that I devour all the books at the library and suddenly BOOM, I stop reading.
Bite me, I dare you. Vampire books are enjoyable to read because they bite. What stings them is that they still have their humanity, the love to be amongst the living. Ah, love, it makes my heart grow fonder. It’s lovely to feel the love of the Vampires. I feel so much love. Just wait a minute, that doesn’t sting.
There are a couple of books beside me that I pick up to read between TV commercials. I tell you, I can read a chapter by the time the ads are over, too many commercials on TV. “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten” by Robert Fulghum and “The Pleasure of Finding Things Out” by Richard P. Feynman. These books are filled with humor and they both sting, a little.
The book that I keep on coming back that I never seem to finish reading is titled “Awareness … the perils and … opportunities for reality” written by Anthony de Mello. This is not an easy read or a romantic novel. This book cuts through the core, and I bleed just by reading it.
When I picked up the book, it opened on this chapter, and I quote in part:
At a loss for Words: “God does not die on the day we cease to believe in a personal deity. But we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the ready radiance of wonder renewed daily, the source of which is beyond all reason. We don’t have to quarrel about a word, because “God” is only a word, a concept. One never quarrels about reality; we only quarrel about opinions, about concepts, about judgments.”
Photographs and Memories 