Read

The ability to read is a sign that you resonate with natural life.

In the modern world many people have lost the ability to read. Most of us live in the maelstrom of addiction or at the very least on the cusp of addiction.

In many ways these addictions appear harmless. We can still function whilst indulging our addictions to social media, sugar, caffeine, online shopping. We can still function whilst having a weekend drink or drug habit. We can still hold down jobs and relationships. We can still hold ourselves down.

But we are wired. We can't sit and read for 10 minutes a day.

The good thing about old school addictions: gambling, drugs, alcohol, is that you tend to end up on the streets, in jail, or dead if you indulge them. They leave you morbidly depressed. Modern addictions: sugar, gaming, social media leave you with an inability to read. They leave you temperately depressed. They play the long game, a long, slow, almost unnoticed slide into an existence that is just a bit bleurgh.

I've noticed that a lot of self-improvement gurus advocate reading. They typically refer to reading self-improvement books when they talk about reading. They rarely even acknowledge fiction. For me it's less about what you read and more about the fact that you do read and that you can read. In fact, I'd probably recommend reading fiction or non-fiction that doesn't come under the self-improvement genre. Very often the reading of self-improvement books is just another form of addiction. For me it takes greater mental acuity to be able to read fiction.

When I’m calm, when I resonate in tune with life and nature, it is a pleasure to read. At other times, when I choose modern addictions over meditation, journalling, exercising and eating healthy, I simply lose my ability to read.