Thursday, May 5, 2016

The Books That Shaped Your Mind

Reading is one of the noblest pursuits. Like all pursuits it can be perverted into a mere shadow of what it is meant to be, but none the less it stretches your mind. What you choose to read will shape your thoughts, your world view, your prejudices, your vocabulary, and even your heart. Some books you will think you are reading just for your pure entertainment and you will find in them a character that moves you so deeply that you can't imagine a world without people like them in it. You will find those people. You will fall in love with imaginary persons and come to realize that those persons were based on living people. You will find someone like them to love. Some books will revolutionize your brain, you will see the world not as it is currently, but as it should be. Or in the reverse not as it should be, not the world you are working for, but as it is, with a new and cold clarity that is both devastating and invigorating.

For me those works have all been fiction. I have learned and changed and grown as a person through the works of Anne Rice, J,K, Rowling, Stephen King and Ayn Rand. As a child I learned through the eyes of hobbits( The Hobbit, LOTR by Tolkien) and wizards( The Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce) and shape changing teenagers that were fighting to the save the world ( The Animorphs by K.A. Applegate) about bravery, courage, conviction and value of friends. As a teenager I lived through thousands of horrors in the works of Stephen King, had my foundational beliefs challenged by the devil himself (Memnoch the Devil by Anne Rice) and found my escape from reality in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling). In those most impressionable years I discovered that suffering was mearly a temporary trial, that the mind was the greatest of all weapons and that family is not always defined by blood and DNA.

In college I delved into ancient mythology, I fell in love with Set and Anubis of Egypt, reveled with Thor and Sif of Asgard, went on perilous journeys with Jason, Heracles and the gods of Greece and Rome. I traversed the levels of Hell (Dante's Inferno) and lived through the gang wars of New York City. I fought in the legions of Troy, philosophized with Neitzche, flew through space on the backs of dragons (The Pern series by Anne McCaffery) and my mind became a wellspring of idea, knowledge and endless possibility. The past brought the present into sharp focus and everything I had been learning, and was learning at the time began to ruminate and coalesce into a shining light house in the harbor of my true self.

As an adult, I have begun down that path of my true self. With the warning and victories of Galt and Roarke (Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead by Ayn Rand), the desperation of women in their darkest hours (The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins), the adventures of young heroes and heroines across the board in young adult literature (Leigh Bardugo, Rick Riordan, Pamela Freeman, Kiera Cass) and through the Plight of the great Priest Riveda (The Fall of Atlantis by Marion Zimmer Bradley) I have turned a corner from the darkness in my harrowed past into the brightest days of my triumphant future.

These books are a small sample of the many worlds, words and stories that have shaped me as a person throughout my life. They have supplemented my real life experiences, saved my life, enhanced my person and given me strength when I had none without them. So, as you look into the books in the store, or the library and you make your choices, know that you are shaping your self as you read. Will you choose the paths of heroes (Robert Jordan, George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss) or another path?  Whatever path you choose, it is important to remember that you chose it and the freedom to walk that path and to make that chose is yours. The freedom to shape your mind to the farthest reaches of your ability is the greatest of all your freedoms. I beg you, do not squander it.

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