"Tell me what you read...

...and I will know who you are."

Dear Diary,

We've always heard the phrase, "You are what you eat".  Well, I believe you become what you read.  Show me a person's bookshelf and I will know a lot about that person.  The lack of a bookshelf is telling too.  I have friends who say they never read.  Maybe not books but they read newspapers or they read on the internet.  We are shaped by all of it in subtle and not so subtle ways.

When I was in Concord last month I got this small volume  by Walt Whitman and I am so enjoying his masterful poems on nature which are paired with short pieces by other writers.  The rubbish we encounter everyday, especially on the internet, can be overwhelming and I have to, from time to time, purify my mind with writing like Whitman's.  If I don't seek solace in such writing I can quickly become despondent.  These brilliant writers and thinkers elevate our soul and drag us out of the gutter.