a bit of a convergence and beach reading

 

This morning reading On Becoming a Person by Carl Rogers I was amused to read:

“… if I can form a helping relationship to myself—if I can be sensitively aware of and acceptant toward my own feelings—then the likelihood is great that I can form a helping relationship toward another.”

Rogers himself prefaces this statement with the phrase: “One way of putting this which may seem strange to you is that….” But for me it seemed a bit of a convergence between him and a recent insight I expressed here (see “a small insight for an old musician“). I was pointing out that if I try to support and validate other people’s musical actions, it might behoove me to do so for myself as well. This and trying to be as kind and accepting to myself as I try to be to others make up a sort of “helping relationship to myself.”

In this same chapter, Rogers comments that the “locus of evaluation, the center of responsibility lies” within the self.

I didn’t read Rogers at the beach yesterday. I took a bag of books. By the time we decided to leave I realized that I had read a bit in each book. This is my pattern. This is one reason real books help me a bit more than ebooks. I can forget I am reading something if it’s tucked away in a etablet but if the physical book is present I am more likely to remember I am slowly reading it. I picked up this habit years ago when I read an essayist who pointed out that if one read a few pages a day in a book eventually one will have made it all the way through it.

Here’s my beach reading from yesterday and the page number I reached sitting on the sand.

Image result for it's even worse than it looks

left off at page 162 of 222.

Image result for the farthest shore

Left off at page 145 of 197.

Image result for the daily assortment of astonishing things

These stories are mind boggling. I read in its entirety the fifth one in the book yesterday, “Memories We Lost” by Lidudumalingani at page 81 of 292.

Image result for ten windows how great poems transform the world

I am on chapter three in this book, “Seeing Through Words: an Introduction to Basho, Haiku and the Suppleness of Image” I discovered that this chapter seems to have been published at least as a separate Kindle “single” ebook.

Image result for the heart of haiku jane hirshfield

Left off at page 82 of 300.

Image result for the poetry of derek walcott

Left off on page 224 of 606 but I read more in my ebook copy this morning laying in bed.

Image result for sixty days robinson

Left off on page 222 of 388. I might put this one down. Robinson doesn’t have much to say to me and Le Guin writes rings around him.

I offer these in the spirit of my own curiosity about other people’s reading. A woman was sitting at a picnic bench reading a book yesterday that suspiciously like It’s Even Worse Than It Looks. I didn’t have the courage to strike up a conversation but was curious.

2 thoughts on “a bit of a convergence and beach reading

  1. Reading a book in a public place has sparked more conversations with folks than most other activities. What a great way to interact with people. And I tend to like people that like to read.

  2. Cindy, It was excellent to sit and chat with you yesterday at the reunion! I enjoyed it and enjoyed hearing about your public reading adventures! Love from Uncle Steve

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