Day # 35 - Back to school

I love books. Truly, I can't live without them. I own thousands of them and have given thousands more away over the years. At the present time, I have 43 books by my bed (I have a nightstand and a second small table.) There is a bookshelf built into the wall which is holding over 100 books and there are probably 300 magazines there, most of which belong to Abby.

I have two bookshelves in the living room packed with more books and there are a few hundred more in the garage. While I have given away thousands of books over the years, there are some I can't part with - at least not yet. Although I've read them, there are some books I have to have near me. I go back to them now and again and read a favorite passage or randomly open to whatever page and read a few lines.

Having them brings me comfort. I have some of the greatest minds in history in my house: Hemingway, Dickinson, Shakespeare, Dumas, Frost, Poe. Such brilliance, mine for the taking. I love books!

I don't own a Kindle or any kind of digital book reader. I don't know if I ever will. There's just something about the feel, the weight of a book. The smell of the paper. Falling asleep with it in my hands, waking up and trying to figure out where I was. I really love books. I even love them on CD, which have become my favored form of entertainment when driving.

I told you that to tell you this:

Never stop learning. School is where you get your training, but life is where you get your education. Education is ongoing, education is gained from experience, from your parents, from your teachers when they stray from the lesson plan, from listening to an elderly person, from standing in line between people who are impatient. Education comes from watching the birth of your child, the death of a loved one. Education comes from being lost in suburbia, falling in love, divorce, reconciliation, arguments, laughter, thoughts, listening to birds, walking along a busy street. Education comes from books you choose to read.

I feel a bit concerned for people who don't want to learn. People content with what they already know kind of annoy me. It's wrong on my part because it's none of my business, but if you're not growing you're dying. I hate to sound melodramatic, but another way television is destroying humanity is that it's created a lack of real intellectual curiosity.

Obesity continues to spread and its not just our butts that have gotten soft and mushy. The same is happening to people's brains. We are a society suffering from mental obesity. We don't exercise our minds or expand our knowledge. We don't exercise our curiosity and it is starting to atrophy.

It's no wonder America isn't what it used to be. It's no surprise that we elect the "leaders" we do. We allow politicians and the media to tell us how unfair life is; how the rich get richer and the poor get screwed. Never mind that about 80% of the millionaires in this country are self-made. You're being fed propaganda meant to make you believe that the difference between you and your boss is that your boss is a cheater. Don't listen to Obama, Pelosi, McCain, or any of the rest of these losers who have never spent a moment in the real world. Read the biographies of people like Carnegie, Edison, Tony Robbins, Oprah, Suze Orman, and countless others, who made something out of their lives by sheer force of will.

The government and media will never teach you this. Only books will. No one ever got rich or even independent from welfare. Any welfare success stories begin when someone got off the government dole.

I challenge you to read today. It doesn't matter what it is. Even if it's a novel. Just read. Start the habit. Turn off the TV with it's poisonous propaganda and do something constructive. Educate yourself. And let me know how it goes.

Lessons:

- Education never ends
- Books broaden your horizons by challenging you to think. TV does the thinking for you.
- The propagandists are not your friends.

Today's Declarations:

- Day by day in every way I am getting better and better
- I will dedicate time to educating myself
- I will never be complete, I will always evolve
- I will resist propaganda and think for myself

There are so many worthy biographies. Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. Abraham Lincoln's story is amazing. Yogi Berra. Sylvester Stallone. There are literally thousands, if not millions of inspiring biographies out there. Read them and share your thoughts with me.

Make it your best day ever. God bless you.

-Adolfo


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