For many years, I did not read. Well, that’s not true. I read a lot of things daily. Articles, reports, historical accounts, news stories, and those sorts of things. I just did not read books. None. Zero. In fact, I only recall reading a couple of books in the past 20 some years. And those came as suggestions from friends. Like the Bridges of Madison County, Water for Elephants, and The Art of Racing in the Rain. I truly think that is about it for a couple of decades.
Prior to that time, I read a lot. I am a slow reader, but I pressed through. Everything by Kurt Vonnegut, and Tom Robbins, to a wide range of classic works, and more. I would chew through them, one right after the other.
So, at the start of 2017, after a long hiatus, I decided to read more books. I didn’t set a goal in the form of a number. I just decided to read more.
I’m laughing out loud right now. It isn’t a very ambitious goal when the number you are trying to beat is zero. Nonetheless.
As November winds down, I looked at my “read” list. I have 19 books under my belt this year, and currently I am working on 20 through 22. I will finish these three by the end of December.
But I got off track before I even started with this writing. My point to all of this. I like the kind of books that have little ribbons built in, for you to mark your place. Typically, they are hardbacks, which are not as easy to carry around. But, if they have the little trick-ribbon installed, it is like magic.
I think all books should have these for sure. It would put the bookmark industry right out of business, I am certain. Oh, those bookmarks come in all shapes and sizes now. Some are digital with little timers on them. Some are silicon and bendy. Others have those little tassels on top, that look like the gizmos on graduation caps. Or. Then there are little cut-out figures of butterflies, and dragons, and angels, and motorcycles. It is wide and far in scope, I will tell you.
But none. NONE of them compare to the swifty, nifty, built-in-ribbon. Keeping your place with the flip of the silk.
I need a ribbon like that. Probably most of us do. There are numerous occasions on any given day, where I will stand, in the middle of the kitchen, holding a screwdriver, or a piece of paper, or a butter knife, and think…. “Now what the heck was I about to do?” I think having my own built-in ribbon would help. I think I’d like Orange, or Green.
The other day, I started tightening up the knobs on the kitchen cupboards. Some thirty minutes later, I was up on the roof, scooping up a fly-by-crash-into-our-windows-dead-finch. In the meantime, I had started to put some floor -fixing-stain on some scratch marks in the living room, washed out the dog bowls, and painted a small section of the baseboard in the foyer. And there was my screwdriver, on the kitchen counter, and I hadn’t even started on the mission of tightening the knobs. I go from one thing the next, seeing the thing that is calling to be mended, and straying far, far away from my original task.
Sometimes I get completely off track. Not only when I am doing work around the house, but also when I am working on the tasks of the heart, like compassion and kindness.
I need one of those ribbons on me, so I can keep my place. My own internal bookmark.
I’ll just need to make sure that I keep it tucked in when I’m out in public.
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“Isn’t it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?”
― L.M. Montgomery
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.”
― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
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“You never fail until you stop trying.”
― Albert Einstein
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