--Joseph Brodsky
I tend to agree with Russian poet Brodsky when he says we are what we read. When so much information is thrown in front of our eyes through newspapers, books, magazines and the Internet, how can it not influence who we are. I know that reading the Cherry Ames Student Nurse series when I was a young girl made me want to become a nurse. I moved in that direction through high school, reading everything I could about nursing and eventually landed in an advanced nursing program. It took a semester in that program to make me realize that my heart actually belonged in the classroom.
While in the classroom, I watched those students who read and researched voraciously succeed in almost every one of their endeavors. Instead of giving them answers, I hope I gave them the tools to find their own answers in the mass of information at their disposal. The problem is that too much misinformation is now being presented as fact. Almost every day I am faced with information that sends me to Snopes to see if it is true. Nine times out of ten it is not.
Unfortunately, too many people believe that if something is in print than it must be true. Almost anything of a political nature is so hidden in half truths, that it is close to impossible to figure out where a particular candidate stands. Our email addresses are far from private, and the information that I get weekly would be comical if it wasn't so frightening. So we have to all be hyper-vigilant if man is truly what he reads, to make sure we research all of the information that we are provided with before we make a decision that might alter the course of our lives.
As I have mentioned in the past, the course of our lives was altered fourteen months ago, when we sold our house and began building a new one. Finally, two days ago, that house officially became ours. These next few weeks promise to be quite hectic, as we prepare to move, and much to my dismay, reading will have to take a back seat to moving. I was not able to finish a book this week, so I will not be able to add a review. Please be patient, because next month should be filled with great pre-holiday reviews. I am almost finished James Grippando's newest legal thriller, and Michael Connelly brings us a fun mixture of his two great characters, Detective Harry Bosch and lawyer Mickey Haller. If anyone has read any good books lately, please send a review or two my way. I should be up and running soon, but meanwhile...
Happy reading,
Beverly