A Simple Joy

The sort of, kind of, resolution I made for this year was to engage my mind in the acquisition of knowledge. I was to do this by returning to reading. 

When I say reading I am not talking about perusing the online posts in the various political sites I visit.  Nor do I mean whipping through the fluffy articles in the entertainment magazine I subscribe to.  By reading I mean I have decided to spend at least ½ hour a day face down in a book.

As a Christmas gift, I got a copy of Robbie Robertson’s memoir of his time in The Band called Testimony.  Robertson clearly dictated these stories to another person who then took the time to clean up what I must assume was a bit of a rambling narrative. What is most interesting is the interconnections between people over time, it reminds me of Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game) by Hermann Hesse.  In one section of the book the author is sitting at a table with Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol.  In another he is saying good morning to his neighbor Cary Grant. Robertson has met everyone from Howlin’ Wolf to Muddy Waters to Joni Mitchell and Martin Scorsese. 

While it is fun to find out tidbits like Yul Brynner’s son was the The Band’s tour manager at one time and the implication Robertson may have slept with Edie Sedgwick of Warhol’s factory the book is all is either technical details about recording songs or it is gossip.  As a result of feeling a little guilty about not reading something with substance I started reading Kitto’s The Greeks.

Having studied Latin in high school reading about the Greeks is right up my alley.  Last night I got through about the first twenty pages.  What was interesting to me was that the author is opinionated and facile in his use of language.  The book from what I can find online is still a good introduction to the evolution of Greece between 1100 BCE to 350 BCE or so. 

One of the things that fascinated me was Kitto’s approach to the use of Greek history, archeology and literature to validate some of the origin stories of the Greeks.  Digging on the islands in the Mediterranean Sea revealed that the Athenians with their tale of coming from a naval power matched up with the presence of a major city on one of the islands.  Minus the God’s involvement the story of the fall of Troy matches up with some of the historical evidence of a weak wall in one iteration of the city.  Many Troys sit stop each other but the fourth from the bottom matches the story told by the ancient Greeks.

Reading, it takes me places I will never go.  Reading, it gives me something to think about. Reading is simple.  Reading is easier than ever before with online books.  Reading ,why do I forget about it and then have to return to it as if I am returning to a well?