My favorite gifts to receive are books. Well, books and records. Both are personal and the giver has chosen that particular gift because of some intimate or specific thing they know about you. In this case the gift is a book titled The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron.
I am taking it seriously and doing the exercises. Most of them anyway. But now I've come to the assignment of "reading deprivation." No, it doesn't involve reading about deprivation. It involves depriving oneself of reading. For a week! Here's a passage that explains the theory;
It is a paradox that by emptying our lives of distractions we are actually filling the well. Without distractions we are once again thrust into the sensory world. With no newspaper to shield us, a train becomes a viewing gallery. With no novel to sink into an evening becomes a vast savanna in which furniture - and other assumptions - get rearranged. We gobble the words of others rather than digest our own thoughts and feelings, rather than cook up something of our own.
I guess that makes some sense, and I trust the author so I am going to try it. It's not going to be easy. At home I always have a book within arm's reach. And I like checking the newspaper websites in the morning to see what's going on. It is now the evening of day one and I must admit I cheated a couple of times by checking the internet for the latest about the Broncos and the Panthers, Bernie and Donald, and all that bad weather out east. Of course, I do need to read as part of my job... so that I won't count. And it should be noted a small victory has already been won in that I have not picked up a tattered old copy of In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan which has been staring at me from the bookshelf every day now for about a week. It's one I re-read every winter, and have been thinking lately it's time once again. But I must resist. For at least this week. It was my first big test on my first day of this experiment. I wouldn't give myself an A or probably even a B, but I passed. That means I didn't fail so I will call it a good start.
Day 2
Day off, with a lot of running around to do, so it was pretty easy to resist reading. That is until I went into the book store. New releases. Recommended reading. Bestsellers. Classics. Staff picks. Bargain books. Books all around me! I realized I couldn't leave there without something in my hands. I reached out and took something off the shelf. It wasn't a book, though. It was this ---
A jigsaw puzzle. I haven't worked on one of these in years. And Kris has been wanting to get one for a while. It was the perfect solution. I resisted the call of the wild book...and kept my record intact of never leaving a bookstore empty handed.
Day 3
Uneventful. I peeked a couple of times. Once was when I noticed a headline in the local paper about a county commission meeting in which a large number of rural citizens turned out to protest a proposed public nuisance ordinance. Turns out that most county residents around here just don't want any part of such a thing, and apparently made their point in a rather loud manner with a certain amount of profanity thrown in for good measure. The ordinance was put aside with no further action planned. And no further reading was done by me.
Day 4
The irony has been noted. As a friend so keenly pointed out to me - this reading deprivation assignment came from a book. A book I had to read in order to find out about the assignment that instructed me to not read. I don't even know how to respond to that.
Day 5
I miss having a book to read. The internet, television and my phone are not acceptable substitutes. And an old favorite is still beckoning....
Day 6
Drove by the library today. Thought about stopping, but kept on driving.
Day 7 - Results and Conclusions
I can't say that by reading much less than I normally do resulted in any great new ideas or inspirations. I won't say it was a failure, however, as it did reinforce my belief in reading as an important part of my life. We didn't get started on that puzzle, but I had time to go a little deeper into my music collection and listen to some lost treasures. And something significant did occur. Last night I woke up from a deep sleep with a great idea for a photo project. It's perfect for me. I won't say now what it is, but I'm sure you will be seeing the results in the future. Was that related to this experiment? I supposed it could be. But it doesn't even matter. I'm still going to keep going with the lessons in the book. And as for right now...think I'll take that Brautigan book off the shelf...
Chapter 1 - In watermelon sugar the deeds were done and done again as my life is done in watermelon sugar. I'll tell you about it because I am here and you are distant........"
Roger O'Dea 1/31/2016
