I CAN'T PASS JUDGMENT ANYMORE

I know all of my friends are loving the ease and convenience of carrying books around on a Kindle, or whatever the gadget of the day is, but this move to electronic reading is really affecting my ability to judge others, yes, you heard me right-judging others is now difficult.

It used to be that I could sit on the train and just by watching book covers, and their respective readers, I would get an idea of what books I might like. Now, everyone has a kindle and I can't really derive reading recommendations without appearing to be a stalker.

But worse than that, new friendships are severely affected. I used to be able to walk into someone's house and look at their bookcase and know whether I should run the other way-now, the non-visibility of books makes identifying incompatibility so much more difficult. For example, if someone were to walk into my house, this is what they might see:

You would be correct in making quite a few assumptions about me based on this random collection of texts, I am a Feminist and probably have some connection to the law, I either learned French or failed miserably, but at least you know I am linguistically ambitious, I clearly love international relations, may have some hording tendencies as evidenced by my still holding on to my undergrad history book, I dabble in photography (photographs which may never be seen because they are digital) and I probably hate doctors because I want to be able to cure myself with food, or I love eating. These would all be great assumptions and surprisingly accurate and you could quickly choose to run away from me or refrain from making statements I would obviously find offensive.

But, if I were to move on to kindle, you would miss out on all these assumptions and learn the hard way that we have nothing in common, by hard way I mean a long meal with nothing to talk about. So, for my sake and my decision-making process, if you decide to use a kindle, still keep a few hard copies of books so that I can judge, please, I am socially awkward, meals with me are just bad when I don't know where to start.

THE INVISIBLE COST OF TRAUMA AND WHY IT IS HARD TO SEE

Every day I look out of my back door and stare at two beautiful Pine trees. Those who don't know their histories see two well-formed plants that cast shadows, clean air and house neighborhood critters. I, on the other hand, see missed opportunities. Only after looking at what was lost among those trees could I begin to conceptualize how much good has been removed from the human experience due to trauma. I bought my home in 2006 and can assure you that the two Pine trees were planted and transplanted at the same time; they were nurtured (or not) by me in the same amounts. Both trees grew at the same pace for about nine years. Over a year ago there was a huge snow storm that toppled the Pine tree on the left. I tied it back up hoping it wouldn't die. Sure enough, the Pine tree was resilient and survived. In fact, if you were to look at it today you would not know that it once fell over and looks like a model Pine tree. People often see survivors of trauma after they have

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: AMERICAN FLAVORED APARTHEID

I remember being a young adult and cramming into a van with 26 other people: this van was designed to hold only nine. Had I been wealthier, I could have gotten on a nicer and safer bus, but I was not wealthy and had to get home ASAP. I hated my country for things like that and loved America because America had nice buses, no overcrowded bus. I had been on American buses and trains while on vacation and they felt glamorous compared to what I had to get on on a regular basis. Years later, I would move to America. I would depend on public transportation to get to work, school and leisure. I lived at the border between a wealthy area and modest one, lucky enough to have been assigned to the wealthier neighborhood's school system. It turns out, PT in America was not that glamorous. The fleets were nicer, but the routes and expense couldn't get me to where I WANTED to be. They were good enough to get me to where OTHERS wanted me to be. I have since moved around and lived all ov

Boots said…

I've been so indoctrinated by Facebook, that it took me a while to realize there is no "Like" button and I'm forced to actually say something. This is great! Evaluating someone's bookshelves is one of my standard friendship-measuring metrics.

April 16, 2014 at 1:38 PM

Modern Ifigenia said…

Thanks Boots! I don't know how I will cope :)

April 26, 2014 at 9:11 AM

MODERN IFIGENIA

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