Still Life:  Boy Underneath a Tree Reading

A couple of weeks ago I saw something startling on the campus where I teach.  It was an adolescent boy sitting under a tree reading a book.  Just reading.  Not a textbook, not listening to his I-Pod, not using a laptop, not taking notes, but just reading a book for the sheer pleasure of it.  It is sad that it is such an unusual sight nowadays even for a college campus.  You usually see students outside smoking, talking, using their cell phones, or some combination of the three. If they have a test that day they might franticly be going over their notes or exploring a neglected text book which heretofore has severed no other purpose than a profitable commodity for some publisher or as ballast in a backpack. Think about that, on a college campus it is unusual to see somebody just sitting under a tree reading a book.  He wasn't even a student, but I hope one day he will be.  It is nice to have students that actually like to read, or even students that will read if pressed. 

When I was a young man I spent several weeks in France.  Most of that time I was in Paris, and one thing impressed me.  The street people in Paris always had paperback books.   Say what you want about France, but that impressed me, and I have never heard anyone else mention it.  Every single street person I saw had a book, and usually they were even reading it. 

My oldest daughter, to my surprise, was deficient in her reading when she finished the third grade.  That summer I launched one of my most successful parenting initiatives ever.  That summer I took her and my son to the library each week, and they were allowed to check out anything they wanted.  I also selected various books for each of them.  Everyday they had an hour of sustained silent reading.  No television, no stereo or radio, but just reading whatever they liked.  The books were stored in milk crates at the end of the hallway.  The one thing I asked was that they try to remember to put the books back in the crate so that our cards would not be blocked.  The first few days were tough.  They complained, they were inattentive, and I spent more time redirecting them than they did reading.  But, by the end of the week they were into it.  I never told them when the hour was up and before long they were going way over the required time.  My daughter today is an English major and an avid reader. 

Of all the inventions and gadgets we have produced as a species I doubt if anything has been, or will be, as marvelous as the written word.  I also think it will stand the test of time.  Audio recordings and video are nice, but there is something very very special about books. After that I think the next best innovation we have come up with is the public lending library. 

In my own life I have been profoundly moved, educated, and inspired by books of all kinds.  To me reading is one of life's sweetest pleasures, and it opens up the world.  I can read about what it is like to live in Casablanca and restore an old house that was once occupied by a caliph (Tahir Shah's outstanding A Year in Casablanca:  The Caliph's House).  I can read the exquisite science fiction of Arthur C. Clark, the visionary/prophetic science fiction of Isaac Asimov, and sweeping historical novels such as the Raj Quartet.  I do not understand people that do not read. They are as mysterious to me as country music.

This summer, many years after my oldest daughter had her successful summer of reading, I have two younger daughters.  As a family we have severely curtailed television, and are very near the point of eliminating it altogether.  Frankly it was a hard thing to do for all of us.  It is so easy to just park kids in front of the television and have their minds turned into mush rather than finding something productive for them to do.  Something like playing outside, conversing, writing a letter, or reading.  I shudder to think of the time we have all wasted preoccupied with something as totally useless as television, and frankly sports comes in a close second.

I wonder what that boy was reading.  I wish now I had asked him, but at the time I did not want to disturb him. 

White Bread Television

 

Sitting in the shade at the pool I was waiting for my daughter to finish swim class.  Sitting on the sidelines a couple of chairs down was another parent talking on her cell phone.  She was involved in a detailed conversation about that inane talk show The View.

 

The focus of the conversation was on the controversy surrounding Barbra Walters, that faux newsperson, along with what various web sites or articles were saying about this riveting issue.  In order not to overhear I would have had to have gotten up and moved to another location – I was not trying to eavesdrop.  It is amazing how people will have these open conversations in public as if their cell phone emits some kind of privacy screen.  Anyway, this was obviously a conversation between experts who were well informed and big fans of the show.  It was amazing to me that I was sharing my time on this earth with two adults who actually had nothing else better to do with their time than:

 

A:  Watch The View

B:  Read articles and related information about the show.

C:  Actually cared about what happened concerning the show, and if Barbra Walters was an asset or liability (seems like they approved of her).

D:  Would spend well over a half hour discussing it.

 

As I write this there are several major crises in the world including the ongoing agony of the train wreck of our involvement in Iraq, and a new crisis between Hezbollah and Israel.  Not to mention the possibility of global warming, the Sudan, and dozens of other tragedies playing themselves out throughout the world.  Forget about other such issues as homelessness, the debate over minimum wage, and the chronically under funded mental health infrastructure.  These fans were not bad people, they are just numb people.  Let me explain.

 

I have noticed that many Americans just don't want to hear it. Any of it. We have already forgotten about 9-11 as if it happened in another era and maybe it did.  We are on the fast track with short memories caught up in the moment consumed by consumerism.  So we tune it out.  We have no efficient filter mechanism and we either hear too much about some issue or too little.  It seems like that most people, except cranks and those who show up at city council meetings, opt for hearing less rather than more.  Otherwise it is too overwhelming.  Yet, what bothers me the most is what people choose to do instead.  I call it White Bread Television.

 

Ever look at the ingredients for store bought manufactured white bread?  Probably the only people who really know what is in it are the manufacturers, a handful of nutritionist or food scientist, and the Orthodox Union.  It is a bland, unhealthy, staple of the American diet.  Just like television.  It contains additives, we consume it without thinking, we consume a lot of it, and while there are better alternatives we just keep shoving it down our gullets.  White bread numbs the pallet just as television numbs the mind.

 

There are better alternatives to store bought white bread.  There are also better alternatives on television other than The View but somehow we just consume what is in front of us that does not make us think or call for any effort on our part. It is truly amazing that most cable channels are as horrific as network television so that the promise of some kind of redemption for television arising out of cable has just not materialized. 

 

If you have ever made homemade bread, even white bread, you know how good it tastes, but also how much trouble it is to make it.  You have to be mindful, you have to plan ahead, and you have to actually do something.  Good television is like that.  Good television is something that inspires and informs.  Yes, good television can even entertain. 

 

My next posting will be about reading.