Reading

What should I be reading? That answer could be quite varied. There are the daily newspapers, magazines galore, conveniently located libraries, bookstores and stores with reading material, textbooks, ancient and modern authors and books recommended to you and gift books. You are your own judge.

True, reading has a lot of competition these days. It is amazing how often we see someone, old and young, zip out their cell phone or iPad and look up almost anything of interest: pictures, the weather, directions, gossip, answers, the time and date, email, pictures, phone calls, bank balance and on and on. Even at mealtime at home or in a restaurant, cell phones wave often at the expense of living conversations and reading.

Having said this, let me suggest three things, not necessarily essentials but beneficial in their own way. These could be read occasionally or regularly, for five minutes or half an hour, in private or public or not at all. This is not a scientific or even a personal habit but a thought that struck me as I picked up a current Reader's Digest.

As a youngster I remember the Reader's Digest and was amazed how little it has changed over the years with its 100 or so pages, stories, ads, covers, columns and the like. There were moving stories of bravery, charity, health and heroism and an urge to say or do something special to someone close at hand, a neighbor, or a lonely individual. In contrast to the daily news with its mixed stories and troublesome innuendos all mingled with news interspersed with gloom and doom and at times newspeak.

In addition to the Reader's Digest is to read letters written or received long ago or even recently. Yes, letter writing is a fading jewel but could be resuscitated. It could also occur by email to someone in your address book that you have been out of touch with too long perhaps. This and personal notes and even an occasional letter in handwriting sent or received has considerable potential value.

Finally thanks to an article where a violent wind destroyed a home scattering its contents with pleas If you can f ind anything, she said, please find my Bible. It was found intact including cherished notes kept in the sacred book. Yes, sacred writings with their wealth of conveying righteousness, history, poetry, prophets, priests and commandments could easily be resurrected into inspirational moments of value often missing in our lives.