A GLIMPSE INTO OUR INNER BEINGS: WHAT WE READ

In this space over the last 3 ½ years, we’ve acknowledged drawing on books we’ve read for ideas on matters we see as worth writing

about. We’ve pointed readers to books (The Half Has Never Been Told, The Color of Law, and The Warmth of Other Suns) we regard as essential for understanding race in America. We reviewed one of them (The Color of Law) in explaining America’s chronic housing discrimination problem. And, we drew on Madeline Albright’s Fascism: A Warning, in sounding the alarm about President Donald Trump’s dangerous affinity for dictators.

                      

Reading books defines each of our lives, beyond the utility of their content. We find

solace in the books strewn around our homes and offices and packed onto our shelves. None of us can contemplate a life without books. But, what do we read and why? With each of us, there’s a story offering insight into who we are and how we’ve evolved.   

Henry: Diversity, Diversity, Diversity

Many books I’ve read have taken me places I

couldn’t have imagined and offered context for the jumbled exploration of my own thoughts. From my earliest years, reading provided a spiritual experience in which I could join others in exploring humanity and personal relationships. Even in childhood, I read many

different things in many different areas.  I still do: science fiction like Isaac Asimov’s The Foundation Trilogy and Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler; physics, like The Great  Unknown by Marcus Du Sautoy

and Alan Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams; religion, including The Bible and A History of God by Karen Armstrong; fiction,including mysteries like Walter Mosley’s Down the River Unto the Sea and classics like Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, John Updike’s Rabbit Run, and The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell. In keeping current on events of the day (and in step with my co-authors) I read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

                    

Each of these works, and many others I’ve read, remain part of my fabric. This approach

has a drawback. Sometimes, when I go into a bookstore, I find myself happy and sad at the same time – happy because I’m amidst so much knowledge I’d hope I can absorb and sad because I can’t read it all.    

Rob: A Change is Gonna Come

If 25 years ago I’d been asked for an explanation of what I read and why, the answer would have been quite different than what I offer today. Before the late ‘90s, with the exception of trashy

“airport novels” I occupied  myself with on cross country flights, I read nonfiction. My bookshelf included volumes on elections (Theodore H. White’s The Making of the President series), analyses of World War II

(Richard Overy’s Why  the Allies Won), political memoirs (Robert McNamara’s In Retrospect), and biographies of major historical figures (Robert Caro’s The Years of Lyndon Johnson series).

These books brought  me considerable knowledge about a few subjects and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them. But, as I see now, I was missing something. A change was coming.   

In 1999, a friend invited my wife and me into a couples book club. Under its rules, each

person took a turn at picking the book for quarterly dinner meetings. Book club membership changed my reading habits (and my life). During the ensuing 21 years, we’ve read 90 books, about half fiction. I found myself reading, and enjoying, A Confederacy of Dunces, John K. Toole’s wonderful, Pulitzer Prize winning novel  set in

New Orleans, where I once lived, and Stephen King’s 11/22/63,  a time travel novel that presented an entirely different perspective on the JFK assassination. 

My book club experience confirmed the wisdom in the old adage some writers live by: if you want facts, write nonfiction. If you want truth, write fiction. l took that to heart. My

book club experience in hand, and after my wife’s death, I  decided I’d try my hand at writing fiction. I began grabbing more and more novels. I still read lots of nonfiction, but I’m now a confirmed, dedicated fiction reader too.

Woodson: Choices and Goals

My book choices are influenced largely by my life choices and goals. With fewer days left to live than I’ve already lived and with goals remaining, I concentrate my reading on what furthers achievement of my goals.

                        

Because I am a property manager and real estate investor, I read a lot on real estate and economic matters (books like Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty, Chris Hogan’s Everyday Millionaires, Joseph

Stiglitz’s People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent, and  Property Management Kit for Dummies by  Robert Griswold).  My interest in political and racial issues is satisfied by reading books like Doris Kearns Goodwin’s masterful Team of Rivals and the critically  important That Used to be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World and How We Can Comeback by Tom Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, Dying of Whiteness by Jonathan Meltz, and

Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. Finally, because I participate in several Christian ministries, I read books

on religion, including Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive by T.D. Jakes, Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, and The Seat of the Soul by Gary Zukav. Then there’s the Holy Bible. I read that too.

                         

As with Henry and Rob, my reading focus developed over time. It reflects life choices

I’ve  made because of my evolution as a person and as a professional, and through recognizing the limitations we all face as humans. Reading remains an essential part of my life.   

            

  

IF WE RULED THE WORLD: JWW AS DICTATORS

An old Temptations hit - / Can't Get Next to You, penned by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong - embodies notions of what each of us might do with complete power over the affairs of humankind. Suppose we could even alter the laws of  nature, as the song contemplated.

For those who don't remember the song (or are too young to have known it when it reached

number one on the pop chart in 1969), we'll recap. A smitten young man laments the fact that though he possesses amazing, magical powers ("I can make it rain whenever I want it to ... I can live forever if I so desire") he can't "get next to" the object of his affections. What would we do with such power? What if we were dictator?

                           

Given our interest in public affairs, perhaps it's not surprising that when asked to list three things each would do if we became dictator and wielded unlimited powers, we focused on the public sphere.

Henry:  Humanitarian Supreme

• I would order immediate and simultaneous destruction of all weapons and weapons delivery systems. While I might need more time for defining "weapon," I can say now I would focus on weapons of war that can massively and randomly destroy human life. We could start with weapons of mass destruction and work from there, whichleads to my second edict.

• I would establish a worldwide commission with a peace agenda. This commission would study peace initiatives and take all actions necessary for implementing them. 

• Finally, I would take every action needed for assuring food and medical supplies reach people in need of them, in both emergency and non-emergency situations. No one in the world should go hungry or suffer from illness because of a lack of medical supplies and treatment.

Woodson: Fixing the Public Square

• Prejudices - racial, ethnic, gender-based, religious, age, sexual orientation - rob our society of its vitality and divert attention and resources from pursuit of our highest aspirations. When I become dictator, prejudices are all gone.

• A lack of education arrests personal development promotes income and wealth inequality and
  
  destroys economic competiveness. As dictator, I would create an educational system that permits everyone to attain the level of education to which they aspire.

• I would focus my dictatorship on America, so I'd seek improvement in the U.S. political system. In a democracy, that means paying attention to elections.  As a dictator, I would institute a system of public
  
  financing of elections, eliminating all private money from the campaign finance system.

Rob: Ignorance, Sports, Climate

• America's racial problem lies, first and foremost, in ignorance. Too many people don't know America's racial past. Too many who do prefer forgetting it and "moving on." To undo this ignorance, I’d require that before getting a driver's license or other government-issued identification or receiving any government benefit, every person spend six weeks in a camp reading our three favorite books about  the history of our racial dysfunction: The Half Has Never Been Told, The Warmth of Other Suns, and The Color of Law.  Can't read? We'll teach you, and then you can do your six weeks.

• As a college sports fan, I abhor the "great man" culture  surrounding many top college football and basketball programs. This culture flourishes, in part, because of a lack of transparency. Coaches
  
  become god-like figures, operating behind closed doors and with hyper­ controlled media access. The coach can do no wrong and is barely accountable to anyone. This led to the Penn State sexual abuse scandal and, I believe, contributed to player injuries and deaths behind closed doors at other institutions.  Sunshine being the best disinfectant, when I become dictator, all college athletic practices, locker rooms, and other facilities will be open to the media and the public.

• Climate change represents one of our most significant public policy challenges of the next two or three decades. Despite overwhelming scientific
  
  evidence, climate change deniers still populate every level of government. When I become dictator, every elected and appointed official who will not certify a commitment to fighting climate change must spend six weeks as {a) a firefighter in the American West, {b) filling sand bags in the flooded Midwest, {c) working on construction of seawalls and barriers in Florida, or {d) monitoring glaciers melting in the Artic.

In a sense, our accounts of what we'd do as dictator represent our wish lists for America and the world. Thinking of it this way offers a different perspective and makes us ask how we could make these things happen. They are fantasies, of course, but think of what life could be like if we, as a nation, and as a world, accomplished them. There's nothing wrong with dreaming.