Guest essay “Some thoughts on the quality of life.” Denton Record Chronicle, 8-30-18

Some thoughts on the quality of life . . .

Ask an educated person a complex question and be prepared for a thoughtful pause. Next, you will notice the eyes giving way to inner reflection, then perhaps you get a smile anticipating and welcoming the challenge. Later, much later, comes the precise reply.

Ask the same thoughtful person what determines the quality of life and he might say that it depends on the quality of mind of the person living it. The modest math is as follows: a rich mind = rich thinking = a rich life.

This is years ago, but at the time, I remember thinking this a good theory, but had no clue how to put it to practice? So I asked. I asked everyone I knew that had a brilliant mind, starting with my father. Then I asked my tío Franco, my tío Raul, my grandmother, my dad’s cousin, six professors, several writers and so forth. I asked nearly forty people and they all had one thing to say: “Read. And by the way, if you want to write, read a lot.”

Someone once said that there is no difference between the person that won’t read and the person that can’t, and I think they were right. Not to say that reading is the only way, but to be exposed to the finest of human achievement, reading is a must. There is only so much one can get from other sources, such as lectures, videos, or recordings, etc. Only reading lets the person stop and contemplate, think and consider, dog ear the pages, highlight, underline and make notes on the margins, with all other chitchat becoming like endless small talk, same as the surf sounds of a faraway sea.

To get a sense of the world religions, the music, the literature, the art, reading is the recommended way by those who have done it. While reading, one leaves behind all trace of popular culture and can concentrate on a world of possibilities regarding the human condition throughout the ages. Then and only then can we become surrounded with a sense of what mankind has accomplished, from long ago then, to right now.

What’s the point? you might ask. Simple: the possibility of living life not just as a way to get from one day to the next, but as an adventure of the body, mind, and spirit: an endless adventure in search of the proper objects on which to spend our newly found knowledge and growing passions.

This, of course, is one man’s view on the subject, but picture being there when Archimedes shouted Eureka! Or when Einstein realized he was onto something big. Or on deck, as a crew member bringing Ulises back from the war and seeing him tied to the mast so he alone could listen to the song of the sirens. Or realizing that after all the evils that came out of Pandora’s Box, there was one thing left, and only one: hope. And if you didn’t know that, you can still read all about it.

Denton Record Chronicle: https://www.dentonrc.com/opinion/columnists/manuel-taboada-some-thoughts-on-the-quality-of-life/article_30ff0ea5-6c12-53a5-ba54-d4f8eafbbede.html