Reading

Reading and writing are important in our culture. And they seem to become more important by the day (!) as more and more of our communications are taking place through texts and ‘apps’. Just the other day I was told that a telephone conversation was just so passé. Something for old people and other dinosaurs. Something that is not done anymore…

Surprisingly enough illiteracy rates are still fairly high. Research done in 2013 shows average illiteracy rates in western Countries around 13%. Depending on which Country you look at, a lot of the people who have trouble reading or writing do have smart phones, tablets and/or computers. But for them the spoken word is a lot more meaningful than the written word.

Although we tend to take our ability to read and write for granted ~ and perhaps even over-use it a bit in modern society ~ it may turn out to be overrated.
For eons of time people lived full and productive lives without reading the newspaper every day. Important events were noted, but that could be done in pictures as well, if not better, than through writing.

True reading was not associated with words as it was with signs and symbols.
Our ancestors were in all likelihood far more adept at reading the signs of the weather. Seers could interpret dreams and events that seemed out of place; that had a special feeling to those experiencing them. And when read correctly, often those signs and symbols would predict what was lying ahead.

And that is where the greatest difference is found. The reading of signs and symbols ~ of the weather patterns and dreams ~ would always leave some flexibility. Nothing that was read was in fact ‘set in concrete’; it could be this, or that…

In our desire for certainty, we have started to think in absolutes. Absolutes that we write down. Absolutes that are read by others and taken as (ultimate) truth.

“I read it on the internet and so it has to be true!”

Our ability to read and write comes with a need for discernment that may have been a lot more commonplace in days gone by than it is now.

On top of that it seems that looking at the signs around us ~ reading our dreams for their symbolic stories, even reading the body language of those we are interacting with ~ is becoming more and more important. ‘Reading’ how things are likely to develop.

‘Reading’ our own feelings and experiences in order to determine whether something that is put into words ~ and ‘written in concrete’ ~ is true or perhaps not so much. And either way, whether it is part of our personal truth, or something we choose to not have in our lives…
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