Traveling the World
Paper bound adventures lack only in one thing: a good reader. You are that reader. You're doing it now, but in what way are you not a good reader? I cannot say for sure what you lack in, but I do know that our generation lacks in people willing to invest with a book, an article, a tale taller than a Brobdingnagian, the giants encountered in Gulliver's Travels. Good readers are easy to spot. They're usually in a sacred place where books are on a pedestal higher than any other object, the Library.
I myself have been to many Libraries. Although each may differ in any number of ways, there are always books. A portal within pages, an entire trek across the stars in a 3" by 5" plastic cover—that is what a book is. But books aren't all you'll see in these knowledge palaces. Brains probing for knowledge behind shelves in knee-high stacks are a common sight there as well. I happen to be one of those probing minds, always thinking and always seeking and always restless. This brings me to another problem I see in our generation, the lack of imagination.
Imagination is a very misunderstood concept. The dictionary definition of imagination is "The faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses," or "the ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful." I think that last word goes very unnoticed. It isn't just thinking up things that nobody thinks, it's drawing from the experience that surrounds you, and that is the part of imagination that is lacking. We seldom absorb our culture and history and make it brand new; we are complacent with how things are. A recurring pattern among great writers is that they draw from what's around them, like Rudyard Kipling.
The author of The Jungle Book didn't have a safari in his imagination from living in the suburbs all his life; he went out and he got familiar with the foliage and the flora and the fauna. He dwelt amongst the worms and dirt, the tigers and their prey. With every animal and all the leafed company, did Rudyard spend his childhood, and in that lifestyle did the seeds of creativity get sewn. If it hadn't been for the rich soil in India, the rich soil in Kipling's mind would never have blossomed into the beautiful thing it is now. He's a legend, for goodness' sake. If we were to take a leaf out of his book, it would be to soak in every precious memory we can, and to turn it into food for our mind's consumption. For every dull moment to be compressed into a diamond is the goal of reading.
If a lifetime of experiences can make Kipling's imagination run wild, how much more could a building full of lifetimes give you? This is what a Library is. A place to learn from experience and to make more experiences. A place to bolster your own writing, and to improve your outlook on life. The Library is an anthology of brick and mortar. However, there are no collections of writing greater than that of the holy book of Christ.
An entire book, comprised of stories that tell about the greatest being in existence, a creative approach to tell people about the creator. That's what the Bible is. No book surpasses this one, and none shall ever surmount its depth. God designed us to relate to stories; that's why we tell our testimonies. They speak in a way deeper than educational recitations of seemingly irrelevant scripture. No matter how colorful my vocabulary is, it shall always lack in sentiment. The LORD wrote the plot of time itself. He is the maker of each and every character in the story. He delved within us before there was anything to delve into with the intention of weaving together personas with emotional filament and sentiment. Each of us lives in a story, and with each book you find at the Library, you peer once more into lives outside your own. The worlds far from you are made near and make you teachable and, thusly, knowledgeable.
