For almost 30 years, I have used a Franklin Covey Planner. I will probably stop this year; they are more than a retired person needs. It's just a habit now, and an expense. But I do recommend them for busy professionals.
Every day it provides a quote. Some are quite sagacious, some are sort of "Norman Vincent Peale-Joel Osteen" types of advice, and some are just plain weird.
On the 14th, this was it: "The power of a book lies in its power to turn a solitary act into a shared vision. . . As long as we have books, we are not alone." This is attributed to Laura Bush. It's not original though (and her speechwriter penned it anyway, I am sure). C.S. Lewis wrote, "We read to know we are not alone." She should have given him credit. Bless her heart.
As a reader in my soul, I do not understand how others do not like to read. How does one understand the world, interact with it, think through ideas, know where we came from, and most of all, hear from God? Yet, of course, for most of humanity, almost everyone did go without reading.
It is a great privilege to pick up a book and get lost in it.
Writing a book is a whole nuther matter, as they say in my part of the world.
Does the world need another one? I wrote elsewhere about my struggle with getting back into fiction writing:
"Another barbed wired fence I am facing is that I think of writing as producing books. That is probably not healthy, or even necessary. This is writing, what I'm doing right now. All writing, most writing, doesn't have to end in a book. In fact, perhaps it shouldn't.
Heaven knows there are enough books in this world! It's a bit like my garden last summer. I put so much work into it, as well as resources, and got very little: a few pitiful cucumbers, a handful of puny tomatoes, and several "messes" of okra (at least). I made an error or two that ended up with very little produce. Other times I have planted gardens where I produced enough to give away, so I do know how to do this. I don't want to work on a book that is sub-par just because I wanted to, or felt compelled to, put another one out. As Annie Dillard says, I don't need to choke the world with another book. We need to bless the world with a worthy book."
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