Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Life feels like a homework assignment

Seriously. I'm reading four different books right now, and all in separate ways.

1. The Bible- This one I jump around in. I was doing Old Testament for a while, but for the last three months, its all been New Testament. I've read the entire book all the way through twice. Each time, it took about a year, but since moving to a new translation, I keep having these "Huh." moments, where I get something different than what I got before. And I enjoy rolling into some thing that is quotable that I didn't pick up on before. And something that I had forgotten is reading it daily really does change you...in my case, for the better.

2. The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers- OK, stop snickering. It is written by a close friend of his, and is very readable. Its a bathroom book because its divided up into small subchapters, but I find myself pondering different ideas from it in quiet moments, which, as I get further into the book, I think he would appreciate as making his point for him.

3. America Falling- The only novel next to my bed at the moment. I only recently got it, but so far, it is a very well-written thriller. I hope it isn't as prescient as my senses tell me.

4. A relationship book. No, I'm not going to tell you it is. I am going to tell you that I will probably make it a point to read 3 to 5 of these books a year for the rest of my life, because they make me think about consciously changing the things I do. As it happens, I usually get the side benefit of figuring things out about myself. Knowing why you do a thing is generally the first step toward changing it. As I have said before, I would rather be remembered for the person I was than being defined by my profession. I have "lawyered" the important people in my life for far too long. If I don't continually work on improving my character, it will never happen.