In a recent Oprah magazine there was an interview of the host of The Bookworm, Michael Silverblatt.
What an interesting man. He loves books. I looked him up and scanned the authors and books he has hosted. Hmmm, a little above my pay grade. However I did find Home by Marilynne Robinson.
So I listened and I was impressed, both with Silverblatt and with Robinson.
Silverblatt remarks that one of the book themes is discovering the "path we've lost".
That's what I've been concerned about, but haven't been able to express it so poetically.
In the book one of the characters was formerly a teacher and she is either talking about her teaching or how she was taught and says that one should "read it until you know why you're reading it."
How often do we do that now? We don't take the time. Again, it is one of my complaints about the students. They do not take the time to read to understand, read to think, read to be curious, read to ask why, read to wonder.
It must be so instantaneous.
Robinson then comments that we should "be bringing children up as a member of the tribe of humankind."
I'm on a crusade (of one, I think) to tell the world that the kids that are coming up through the educational fields are not always exhibiting the humaneness of humankind. It's more the tribal part. The selfishness, the anger, the impatience, the wants not needs that MUST be met.
None of this is really what the book is about, but the podcast made me think and it made me think that although I may not read all the books of Silverblatt; I could appreciate his and his interviewees intelligence and ruminations.
Take a listen to Marilynne Robinson on Bookworm.
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