There is so much to recommend novel reading. Not only are novels perhaps the most delightful invention ever made, but they can improve our capacity for empathy and understanding of the minds and emotions of others. Reading can even be useful for managers who want to improve their ability to think ambiculturally.
But even with all that, I think the most compelling defense of novels that I have ever come across was in the final letter of a monk to his community. You can read the letter in its context here and my post on his passing here.
March 12, 2015
Dear Abbot Gregory and Confreres,
It seems fairly obvious to me that my earthly days are reaching their conclusion. As this comes to be, I would like to say a profound Thank You! to God for life, faith, you my confreres, my family, vocation and friends.
I loved my childhood days in Idaho and have loved my life at Mount Angel over these 63 years. I thank all of you who have been a part of my life at Mount Angel. The monastic life is a wonderful charism in the Church and has resonated well with my life: community, silence, choir, obedience and reading—all growing out of the Liturgy. I have loved the teaching charism in the Seminary. Teaching those who will carry on the faith is a privilege for which I am very grateful.
Some of you may have heard of my plan of life for all of us: Jesus Christ, Church, Liturgy, and novels. (Novels teach us the mystery of the human family—our brothers and sisters on their own journey to the glory of God.)
And so, my brothers, I thank you for the privilege of spending my life in this Monastery with you. Please pray for me and know that I will be praying for you.
In the Lord and Saint Benedict,
Father Paschal
“Novels teach us the mystery of the human family.” Think on that for a moment. All the other reasons to read novels flow from it. We increase in empathy because the more we gaze upon this mystery, the more we see that we share in the same frailty, that we’re the same family. We become ambicultural because all cultures are part of this mystery. This is not a shroud separating us from understanding, but a bottomless well that we can continually look through and discover something new. Have you ever had those moments when you finished a novel and you just had to sit for a moment and let the remembered plot fill your mind and your senses. You weren’t thinking deeply or analytically about it, but you also weren’t ready for the next novel. You were just being with the text. That was when you entered into the mystery of the human family.
I think I’ll stop there before I start feeling like we need another Kirk hug.
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7 Responses
What a moving letter he wrote. All novels are gifts. Great novels are great gifts.Lives lived to the full are the greatest gifts of all.
All the very best
Kris.
http://www.awritersden.wordpress.com
http://www.the1951club.org
So true. It was very like him to end with a letter. The tradition is that monks keep vigil with the dying to comfort them, and he comforts the community instead by writing them a letter.
I’ve read studies that show through brain scans that monitor activity that reading develops imagination and watching too much TV retards the growth of the imagination.
That’s another benefit.
And I think reading books for fun on a regular basis—at least thirty minutes or more a day, everyday for life—increases literacy and boosts the ability to understand complex issues making it harder for lying politicians, billionaires and corporate CEO’s to fool people when they decide who they are going to vote for.
For a democracy to survive, most voters should have a high rate of literacy.
I didn’t know that studies had found that about TV. You can almost feel it happening. An internal lethargy creeps in, but with reading, even if you spend a day overindulging in it, there can be an internal buoyancy. Do they say anything about film? Is it the physical medium of TV or is there something in the way narrative is delivered through it?
I’m not sure about film where there are no distractions (advertisements) during the entire movie. I’ll look that up.
From what I’ve read, TV shows don’t leave much for the imagination to work on, but while reading the imagination is actively creating visual images in our mind of the characters, worlds and/or environments we are reading about.
Through reading novels, I have lived many lifetimes and experienced many worlds that I would have otherwise never known. Thank you for sharing this post on #TrafficJamWeekend Linky Party
I’m glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for hosting the party!