Building a Library

The following are not presented in the order dictated by the Dewey Decimal System

1. Watched the documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson.
   
2. It is hard if not impossible that you question your faith as a result of lost, frustration and what seems to be overwhelming odds against yourself.
   
3. The book and movie adaptation of High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Especially how the main character Rob judges people by their album collection.
   
4. Frank Zappa who said, “Bad facts make bad laws.”
   

The following was “sparked” by a moment of frustration in another part of my life. But please do not read it with that tone of thought. As for that frustration and what it was is something for another place and time.

The following post was also influenced by This I Believe
where they challenge you to write down a statement of your own. I never thought I was capable of doing one. I am still not sure. But I am going to try for one anyways.

I want to also state that what I am about to write is not meant as an all encompassing religious philosophy that you have to buy into. Or even accept at all.

 The true mission of education is to give of a foundation of skills. Their purpose is to lay the foundation upon which you continue to build your base of knowledge upon. The process of education will always be ongoing throughout your life. And it will be going on long after the dates stated on whatever degrees or certifications you may acquire. Education may be viewed as a formal process but do not use it as the only way to “round out” your experiences as a human being.
Over the years, I have collected vast amounts of books. They cover a wide range of topics and genres. I do enjoy reading whenever I have the opportunity to do so. I like attempting to expand my own personal knowledge base. I also like challenging the validity of what I have learned to see if it still holds true.

I have come to the realization of this habit. I will never have an all encompassing philosophical or ideological principle that will define my life as a whole. I am at an age where I should have acquired one by now. There are many of those who are also at my age and will find this to be a scary notion. I find it comforting. It means I will always in some way be engaging what I have collected in my library. What I know today may not hold up in the future. And what I deny today may be one day is revealed to be true. I also accept that all of the knowledge I gain may never have a direct application in my life. That knowledge may only exist to expand the horizon of my own thought process. It may only exist to build up my own personal library. There may be an event at some point in my life where I may require access to such knowledge. When and where this event may occur has not been revealed to me as of yet. If ever.

I would rather work on my library as an individual. I am doing so to keep myself in some sense of motion. I do not want to waste time trying to align myself in total with any particular movement. The problem is too many movements are the result of a passing fad or short term moment of chaos.

I would also like people to work on their own library. I also would like to remind them that when dealing with others that they should resist the urge to completely compare and judge what others have accumulated. It is important to be open-minded. And at the same time have the filters ready to sift out anything that may contaminate your own collection. Be proud of your own library. But be humble to the fact that it will remain a work in progress.

We may all have a similar collection of best sellers and the titles acquired by academic requirements. It is the obscure titles in the collection that fill out and uniquely identify a personal library. The same also applies to an individual’s own experiences

 “The universe is too great a mystery for there to be only one single approach to it.”

     -Symmachus-

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