365 Days

I found this book in the spare bedroom upstairs in the house and after it being recommended by Tara (HoboStripper) on her blog I decided since it seemed to come to me that I should pick it up and read it (kind of an omen, no?). Here is a quote from it which I enjoy:

"There's nothing fundamentally wrong with people. Given a story to enact that puts them in accord with the world, they will live in accord with the world. But given a story to enact that puts them at odds with the world, as yours does, they will live at odds with the world. Given a story to enact in which they are the lords of the world, they will act like lords of the world. And, given a story to enact in which the world is a foe to be conquered, they will conquer it like a foe, and one day, inevitably, their foe will lie bleeding to death at their feet, as the world is now"

This quote is being said by Ishmael, a gorilla, to a man who responded to an add Ishmael put in the paper that read "TEACHER seeks pupil, must have earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person".

It takes off from there. I haven't put it down (except to post this and eat) and am on chapter 5 pt. 4. The quote you see is from chapter 5 pt. 3. I enjoy learning about my place in this world and as a human can fully agree with the statements that have been put in this book so far. If that quote seemed a bit negative the rest of the book has made it to seem more of a realization.

You can read more about why you should read this book here.

Almost any book that will help my aide in search of what I can do to make myself and the world a better place will find itself in my hands and me not being able to put it down. The trick for me is to not let it consume my desire. There's a lyric I love that supports this:

"He's been beaten
Might have brought it on himself
So he stopped reading
Every book on mental health"

point being is that I don't want to get caught up in reading about it so much as I would love to be immersed in doing it. Ishmael seems to be one of those books that doesn't tell you what to do so much as it tells you that something, anything needs to be done.

What that something is, so far, is left up to the individual for the most part but it paints a pretty strong picture that it needs to be done differently