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| photo credit: Marco Bellucci via photopin cc |
Everyone has questions about all
sorts of things – identity, sexuality, gourmet cooking, business start up
parenting, communication, golf, or a nearly infinite list of subjects. One of
the most natural places to find answers is in the pages of a book. We peruse
them and devour then looking for bits of insight and information to improve our
understanding. And numerous books do a fine job of answering our questions
clearly.
But there is type of book, a much
rarer creation, that does something more. Often the questions we ask of a book
are all we know, but there are questions we did not even know were in us. These
are uncertainties and emptiness in the soul, that nagging, unidentified sense
of unease about . . . something. A common book answers recognized questions,
but this singular variety of books brings to light those questions buried so
deep in us we could not name or articulate them. And once the questions are
drawn to the surface the book goes on to provide answers.
And it is just this type of book
we should search for since they are treasures. We must not settle for books
that merely answer questions we know to ask, for then we are our own teachers.
We must hunt for books that teach us truths about ourselves we did not know,
and did not know we should know.
Reading the obvious sort of book is fine for certain questions - How? Who? When? Where? But only certain
books can explain “Why?” or “Who am I?” These are soul questions and need soul
answers.
The intersection with such a book
is a miraculous thing, for if we meet them at the wrong time and in the wrong
place they are full of ordinary words and normal truths. But when we stumble
unexpectedly into one it is when the blinders come off and we see soul answers
to soul questions. And it is always
unexpected. There is no predicting which book will move us. No friend’s
recommendation or reviewer’s enthusiasm can arrange this miraculous meeting. It
merely surprises.
The only way to meet such a book
is to keep reading. Move from one book to the next. Read four at once. Stop one
and start another. Refuse to be satisfied by the ordinary unless it ends
quickly. And as you move from book to book such a soul-answering title will
find you, hold you, and help you.
