Day Two Hundred and Seventy One
Today I finished The Complete Bech (still not happy with how Updike played with his character in the next-to-last story), read all of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense and part of The Rights of Man. 143 down. 57 to go! I thought a lot of Common Sense was neither common nor sense, but then I’m a monarchist so what do I know…
If anyone was wondering what the day was like, this picture is worth those proverbial thousand words. Of course Jared was taking care of them or helping take care of them all day, he’s just behind the camera here.
I appreciate everyone’s encouraging comments and just knowing that others care about my little project helps me over the blahs and wanting to quit. Unfortunately I have to disagree with some of you even while appreciating your condescension to follow my blog. I’m not reading these books just to enjoy myself. I don’t think there is anyone who loves and delights in reading more than I do. I would rather read than do almost anything (and that only got amended to an “almost” after I got married…ahem). 
But, it is not my goal to get through life just enjoying myself and reading is one of the chief areas where enjoyment ought to be secondary to other concerns like improving ones mind and refining ones education. I cannot in good conscience advocate reading for pleasure except in the situation where it is a choice between that and some vapid form of self-entertainment. Read rather than watch teevee but don’t “read for pleasure” rather than “read for understanding”. Again it is a blessing that so many of us enjoy this activity but that is not what makes it a good pursuit.
My other disagreement is with the old saw “it’s the journey not the destination”. I’m not sure how this passed into our collective cultural philosophy but I’m afraid I find it to be one of the more ridiculous bits of folk wisdom. If the journey is the point then why, pray tell, do we ever arrive anywhere? If there were no goal then how would we travel? The journey has many lessons but those lessons are learned while trying to reach the destination. The whole concept of a journey revolves around trying to get somewhere. Otherwise we’d all just set up camp at the most propitious spot (like right in the middle of The Life of Samuel Johnson) and just stay there.
So please do encourage those who travel to keep going, encourage them to keep sight of the goal and encourage them to get all they can out of the journey. But there is no point in setting sail if we’re content to float a mile off shore.