| Issue #31, October 27, 2006 |
Inspirations by Emily J. Weitz
Read Your Way Back to Serenity
Anyone who has taken the time to pick up this bulky newspaper and flip through to the back section, locating this column obviously has an appreciation for reading. I find reading to be one of the most therapeutic activities to engage in. Opening the pages of a fictional story that reveal characters who will sweep you away from the things you see every day is like taking a little vacation from your own reality. And I think, for a truly healthy mentality, we humans require more vacations than we can usually get.
However, I find that the harder I am working, the scarcer my reading time becomes. Even the subway, usually a safe-haven for books and newspapers, can be usurped by work that I’ve taken with me, to finish as the train thunders home. This encroachment of work on the brain is not healthy. There needs to be a division, a time when you feel free from the toil of your day, even if the toil is something you love, something that you pour your soul into. After all, there will be no soul left to pour if you don’t take any time to juice yourself up. Reading recharges.
In my most recent, all-encompassing experience, I have been teaching 27-fourth graders every day, all day, in English and Spanish. I love these kids. And as much as I loved The Fountainhead, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Anna Karenina, there is no space for an epic novel in my life right now. I am too busy working with children whose lives are so complicated that novels should be written about each of them. So, how do I stimulate the reader in me when I feel like I don’t have the time or the energy? I have switched genres, from novels to short stories. Short stories offer the same roller coaster of someone else’s emotions, the same fascination with someone else’s life, but you start them when you get on the train, and are often finished by the time you arrive at your destination. If you are taking the LIRR, you could spin through a few different stories in one commute; you could travel from Prague to South Africa in one bus ride.
I think it’s important to be vigilant of what your reading tolerance is at any given point in life. You can’t just assume that since you’ve always liked reading the classics, that is your genre. If you happen to find yourself in a very different situation in life, the classics may feel outdated or inapplicable. Or, you might just find that your attention span is lacking right now. That doesn’t mean it’s time to switch on the television and bag the books. Because of the investment I make when I read a book, I find I get a lot more out of it. I feel like I’ve earned whatever feeling that book gave me, because I held it in my hands and read it with my eyes. I soaked it in through the senses, all wrapped up in a blanket on a Sunday night.
So if you find yourself unable to commit to a grand, flowing masterpiece try out the short story. You’re in and out in one sitting, but you still get the fulfilling sentiment that comes with having earned inspiration.
I have been spending my slow Sunday mornings with a cup of coffee and an anthology of short stories, sprawled out in the sunshine across the church steps across the street from my house. The sun soaks into my hair as I dive into the straight-to-the-heart-of-it, short-story style, and I find myself crying over the plights of characters who, only an hour before, I had never met. One anthology that I strongly recommend is You’ve Got to Read This. It’s a clever compilation. Each short story is prefaced with a recommendation by a contemporary American writer. John Irving, Amy Tan, and Tim O’Brien are just a few of the great authors who choose “stories that held them in awe.” I’ve also been reading Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, in which one story after another had entranced me. And Raymond Carver’s masterful Where I’m Calling From will throw you right into the worlds of his characters, and then have you off and on your way in 10 pages.
Reading keeps you aware that your life is not the only life; it lets you in on other people’s secrets and other city’s burdens. If you are feeling like there’s no time to resolve all the things going on in your life, maybe you just need to take the time to take a time-out from your life, and step into fiction, if only for a train ride.
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