Life is very much like a short story. Focus on everything and you accomplish nothing. Sadly we must quickly search for what we want to define our life’s work or it will be lost. My definition in life so far has been striving to be a good person, help others, and enjoy my everyday. In progressing with this resolution I must find exactly how I will accomplish this as life progresses. Can I help more people making stories then working at a retail store? How will I tell these stories, what intrigues me?
I look closer, reading and analyzing what will expand my knowledge, but perhaps narrow my search. I don’t waste my time reading fiction. I read about film, I study established auteurs in the field. Between school, work, and family it seems like there is never an hour to waste.
The problem is close reading can quickly become closed reading. What about religion, what about God? Do I give enough time to analyze my beliefs and how I incorporate them in my daily life? Can I do this too much?
All things in moderation, it is a phrase that holds a lot of universal truth. Fanatics are annoying. I think you can be ‘too mormon’ as well as ‘too atheist’. Additionally, one can become a workaholic or a lazy bum in a basement. Life is a constant game of finding balance in a fluctuating personal dimension of change.
Reading art and people in a more extensive manner makes communication personal. Getting out of my home to attend church or watch a film is enjoyable because it allows others to present personal questions for me to explore and interpret.
In reading this assigned appendix I was reminded of my first experience going to the Grand Canyon. My siblings and I groaned that my parents were dragging us on a road trip over the short Thanksgiving break. “I’ve seen the Grand Canyon in pictures!” I would moan. Of course when we got there it was like nothing I had ever experienced. I gained a completely different reading than what was provided by pictures in a book.
If we do not constantly read what is around us and analyze them, we loose a sense of ownership over our soul and rather depend on movie critics and medical therapist.
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