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HERE COME THE JUDGEMENTALIST
Give a kid a bow and arrow set and everything begins to look like a target.
Give a kid a love of reading and everybody who isn’t reading begins to look off-kilter, akimbo, substandard, not quite right.
Sorry, that’s just the way it is.
Birmingham’s streets are filled with imperfect examples of this judgementality of mine.
There’s a man sitting in a parked car, staring into space while his wife is shopping. He’s just sitting and staring. Why isn’t he reading a book, writing a letter, making a list of things…why isn’t he doing something with his mind? How can he just sit and stare into space?
Sorry, I can’t tamp down these feelings.
There’s a young woman sitting in a car’s passenger seat, licking her fingertips, rubbing them under her eyebrows as if to iron down her makeup rough spots. Then, she picks at a blemish, thus making it more blemishy. Then, she pats her hair and adjusts her clothing. Why isn’t she reading a book or a newspaper, studying philosophy, writing poetry? How can she just sit there adjusting her bellybutton lint, so to speak?
Sorry, something inside me is in awe of time wasted by people who are not reading and absorbing more knowledge and factoids and sharing imaginations with writers.
How can that big guy, tagging along with his wife in my shop, just stand there in the aisle, ignoring all the glorious thoughts and wishes and tales and truths and lies begging for attention on my shelves? How can he just stand there while the rest of us are running around shuffling reading materials and absorbing images and ideas that keep our brains from shrinking?
Sorry, that judgementalist in me just can’t understand.
I just want to share my love and lust for reading, my exuberance at holding century-old books in one hand and brand-new books in the other, as I scurry around shelving them.
I don’t know how to get through to these denizens of the streets, but I keep trying.
As Bo Diddley said, “We’re a short time here and a long time gone.”
Grab a book fast, before the colors fade
© 2011 A.D. by Jim Reed