...think hard, reach down deep in your heart and soul

for a way to kill these suitors in your house,

by stealth or open combat.

You must not cling to your boyhood any longer--

It's time you were a man.

-Book 1, 338--341, The Odyssey

Read well, read deeply, and read often. Three short phrases sum up the greater part of what is basic to an understanding of a complex and evolving world. To read well you need to read closely, to think imaginatively and to allow yourself to be challenged intellectually, emotionally, culturally, and politically. To read deeply is to try and find meanings, morals and messages within the images and actions; it forces you to decipher the metaphors that cling to the twists and turns of plots, or it prods you to understand the spartan logic of a philosopher's mind as he or she lays out a reasoned reflection on the conundrums and constants of life. To read often is to place reading before the lesser pursuits of the day. Second only to the feeding and sheltering of the body is the feeding and nurturing of the mind--and there is no greater food than a piece of great literature!

If you are not touched by a book, then don't touch it--don't wound eternity with an idle mind. "But," you say, with exasperation; "you give us these books; you force us to read them. How can we be touched when we are force-fed what to read? How can there be romance when there is no passion? What teenager does not want to rebel against the directives and edicts of a misguided teacher?"

Therein lies the rub: "Mis-guided!" What if the teacher is not mis-guided? What if, on the contrary, they are very well guided by both life, instinct and vocation? How could you then, not listen? Why wouldn't you listen if there was some measure of hope that this teacher could guide you to a greater understanding of life than you ever dreamed possible. At a certain point in my life I let Henry David Thoreau be my teacher, and only then did I realize that it was cynicism and laziness that kept me from accessing the opportunities created by reading the great works of literature, and so I began a thirty two year adventure of reading--a journey that still feels like I am barely out of the harbor! The first book was The Odyssey and I'm damn sure it will be the last. If you are unwilling to face the challenges of The Odyssey go back to your face book page and gossip with the idle minds of your generation--and mine, for that matter. If you are afraid to become a man, then don't become one."