Reading is... well, Fundamental

Got that bestseller on your nightstand--- half finished? Uncle John's Bathroom reader by your throne? Stephen King stashed by the couch? You are a dying breed, my friends. I read another depressing study last week that revealed, to no one's suprize, that one in four adults read no books at all last year. The people who do read are older people and women.

Anyhow, today I'm starting Wayne Dyer's new book on the Tao Te Ching, called Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life. I caught him on PBS last weekend and got interested in learning more about the Tao, a book that's been on my shelf basically unread since I got it in college. Dr. Dyer meditated on the verses in the Tao, and attempted to relate its message in the context of modern times.

I've read most of Dr. Dyer's books. My favorite is Your Erroneous Zones. In there he talked about Guilt and Worry. Two completely useless emotions. Spending your time feeling guilty about anything will not change the past, and sitting there worrying about the future only wastes your living moments right now. It will alter nothing in the future. Only action-- taken right now in the present can do that.


The change your thoughts, change your life mantra is no new territory for Dr. Dyer. He said all along that you become what you think about. Imagine yourself in the situation you want to be in and live as if it is already there. It makes sense to me. If you want to be thin, imagine yourself as thin and behave as a thin person does. Exercise, eat right, pass on the dessert--- do that every day.... and one morning you will wake up and be thin! Of course, it won't be tomorrow. But, as trite as it sounds, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.


You see, all this is pretty elementary. We all just need to contemplate more.

It is a dying art.

Now, pass those potato chips.

Naahhh, forget it. I'm contemplating thin-ness.

( I know... good luck with that.)