Reading is Fun-damental

I posted earlier that I had joined a group of people on Facebook in the quest to read 52 books in a year.  This task seems a little daunting - I gave up reading books to work on sewing and crocheting projects and watch my favorite recorded shows on TV about two years ago.  Not that I quit buying books, mind you... there is a whole stack in my bookcase whose covers have never been opened.  They looked so inviting, but I never made the time commitment to sit down and read them.  But all of that is changed.  And I can happily say at the end of the first week of 2012 that I have completed reading book # 1 - The Time of Our Lives by Tom Brokaw.

I chose this book because I got it as a Christmas present from Shawn's dad.  I've always loved watching Tom on TV, and whether on a news program or as a guest of David Letterman, he's humorous and thoughtful.  He has good Midwest sensibilities, which I never really appreciated until I married someone from Michigan, and then lived in Illinois and North Dakota.  And while I will keep it on the shelf and refer to it from time to time, I'm glad that I read it through in 5 evenings, so that I could get a sense of what he had to share and what it had to do with me.

I think one of the reasons why I liked it was because I really felt that each of the areas he covered he asked questions that I have thought of, even if I have never said them out loud.  He addresses the major issues that people are living with every day.  He gives brief statistics about each subject and then asks two or three questions for the reader to place him or herself in the conversation.  Then he looks at how the topic would have been addressed in the past, how is it seen in the present, and what it looks like in the future.

The author shares liberally from his own personal story - in some ways this allows him to honor the stories of his parents and their families, his wife, his children and grandchildren and his friends.  I was really struck by how the Tom Brokaw we see on TV is the sum of all of his experiences.  And how he has changed his mind about things over the years.  And how there are difficult questions that need to be asked by someone we trust.

I loved some of the questions he raised and I'll be thinking about them a lot this year, in the light of the upcoming elections, and as I look forward to a summer Air Force move and choices I can make in a new place and position.  And while I'm not sure I agree with all of his conclusions, I give him lots of credit for thinking through difficult subjects that many of us have avoided by saying, "Let someone else worry about that."

The lesson I take away from this read is that I have a contribution to make - it is not only my responsibility, but also my honor to try to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.

"For an emerging generation of Americans, now is an opportunity to renew and strengthen that tradition of rising to meet the challenges an unpredictable world places in its path."  Tom Brokaw, The Time of Our Lives, page 149.


Peace, Deb

Book #2 - One Second After - a novel by William R Forstchen
recommended by my non-reader spouse who is dying to talk about it with someone....