Reading together can change everything. It is a great example of a rich activity for families and friends that should be ordinary but is quite rare. Fortunately, it is very much in our reach with real intentionality.
A dramatic, negative phenomenon of our age is that we tend to be absorbed with shallow or vain things. This is not random. Aristotle sagely notes that if something happens regularly it is not the result of mere chance. Powerful forces in our culture draw us away from the profound and mire us in the passing and peripheral. I realize this is a serious and scary assertion. Yet again I say it: our souls are being numbed and dumbed, and this at the very core of our being.
We need to call a spade a spade. This is not just our young people, even though in them it is most evident. We all lack ability stemming from a lack of practice in the most ordinary features of human life: bodily presence; looking one another in the eye; really hearing one another in conversation; rejoicing in simple, beautiful things of nature and art. Perhaps worse than the lack of ability is the lack of a taste for these things, and so an indifference stemming from inexperience.
We don’t have a taste for what we haven’t really tasted. And so the deepest needs and inclinations of our souls while still very much gripping our hearts remain unfulfilled. Lacking the direction and form that comes through ordinary, rich activities, the longings of our souls now drive us toward the titillating, passing things constantly served up to us.
So we live in the shallows, though we were made for the deep. Some of us go all out, insisting in our pain that this really is good; we just need to cast off unrealistic standards. Others of us are aware something is amiss, but in fear or discouragement we stagger along keeping a steady course. Some of us have almost no notion there is anything else, and so our daily lot is to lean into whatever offers the most engaging diversion.
And the angels look on, and they wonder. What does it take for the human heart to come alive, for human persons to see, and to start to live the life that is truly theirs?
But wait, what does this have to do with reading aloud together? That is a very important question, and here is my thought.
At moments where we have an insight into our great need for vision, for healing, for conversion, and for renewal, we naturally seek an appropriately big answer. Yes, the ultimate answer is very big, and it is a matter of turning to God, and to his plan for us.
Sometimes then we are left wondering what do next. Any appropriate concrete steps will be a kind of turning to him, and the most important of these I leave in reverent silence now.
Yet I do say this: God’s plan for us is always a plan for real human flourishing. We must then come to appreciate the simple, and yes ordinary, features of this most extraordinary reality. Human life is about relationship, and real presence, dwelling together in the things that matter. And life is a story, indeed a drama of the first order. So reading together is bigger than it might seem.
Reading together in bodily presence, entering into the stuff of life in a reflective and receptive spirit, speaking and being heard, lingering in silence, laughing together, crying together, being together. This has a power far beyond what appears. Simple efforts here—even if in fits and starts—have fruits that echo deep in our hearts and long after the activity itself ends. In activities such as reading together maybe, just maybe, we taste something that opens a window into the depths.
And then, oh yes then, the angels look on, and they wonder. ~ ~ ~ [See this week’s podcast on Reading Together below…]
FINAL REGISTRATION for LIFECRAFT DAY IN TOWN–our premiere IN-PERSON event this summer; SATURDAY. Making Home a Place to Start and End Life. Info and tickets here. We hope you can join us at an historic venue in the beautiful town of Front Royal. THIS SATURDY. Look at this video:
NEW PODCAST: READING TOGETHER FOR RELATIONSHIP. Reading together might be one of the most underrated and under-practiced activities for spouses, friends, and other close relationships. Sofia and I share our experience and reflect on just how powerful reading together can be in deepening the most important relationships in our life. Find and share all our podcasts HERE.
Husband, father, and professor of Philosophy. LifeCraft springs from one conviction: there is an ancient wisdom about how to live the good life in our homes, with our families; and it is worth our time to hearken to it. Let’s rediscover it together. Learn more.
My husband (of 41 years) and I have read aloud together in the evening for years. Often we read young adult books because the chapters are short and not overwhelming before going to bed. Richard Peck’s “A Long way from Chicago” is funny and lighthearted. “Brilliant! 25 Catholic Scientists, Mathematicians, and Supersmart People” packs a punch, learning about people we were amazed we’d never heard of! “Halfbroke Horses” by Jeanette Wells is interesting, funny, and entertaining. A kids’ book on Lincoln’s assassination reawakened an interest and love of our 16th president.
Reading and praying together is a combo I’ll always recommend for everyone!
Thank you so much, Mary. It’s so great to hear such a personal testimony, as well as to get some good recommendations!