by Shaun Michael Samaroo
LOVE for reading is a habit that serves us well in life.
It is a joy and fun to sink one’s teeth into a good book and get into the meat of a great writer’s thoughts and insights about the human condition.
Reading also opens up the mind to new worlds, to new experiences and concepts and lives.
One who reads good books and magazines finds life to be rewarding, fun and enjoyable. Opening up the mind to new ideas and insights is such a beautiful thing.
Yet how many people we know who just so dislike reading? It shocks me that people don’t crave to spend their time in books.
Books offer so much. If we spend our time wisely, reading and absorbing the experiences and thoughts of great minds who were disciplined enough to write, we would live so much more fulfilling lives.
Language and words are powerful tools. Humans turn to words and language to have relationships with each other. If it was not for langauge and words, the human race would be no better off than the animals, those dumb beasts.
Humans are beings of indoctrination. We learn from the time we are born to imitate life, to imitate the cultural habits and norms of our parents and our society.
Words carry two meanings. One is the dictionary meaning of the word - the denotational meaning. The other is the emotional or perception meaning of the word - the connotational meaning.
The latter is how each and every human being sees the world. We respond to life’s experiences through our emotions.
How we unconsciously define words in our mind’s eye dictates the kind of individual we become, the character we develop.
So it is very important to develop a sense of love for words, for language, even if only to better define our own thinking.
Clear thoughts lead to clear actions and clear motivations for the things we choose to do with our lives.
The average human being embodies amazing potential. But many of us waste this latent creative energy in mediocre living because we are not clear on what our real role is in society.
Reading causes us to have a clear and real sense of our place in the world. Reading equips us to have the knowledge and wisdom to live sound and fruitful lives. We need to develop a daily reading habit.
