A Book Is...

I love this.  It always amazes me to think that we have the ability to look into the mind of someone who lived long ago.  To realize that thoughts, feelings, emotions are universal, timeless.  Though the physical body may be long gone, ideas remain and often spark new thoughts and possibilities for those of us presently inhabiting this planet.  But we must always remember that freedom is vital to the continued passing on of ideas.  In Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, Faber indicates that for ideas to make a difference three things must exist:  "Number One: quality of information. Number Two: leisure to digest it.  Number Three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the two.  May we never lose the right or the desire to examine, appreciate, wonder about, and learn from the ideas of others.

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture.  Just get people to stop reading them."  ~Bradbury