Reading and Compassion

I know we all read for different reasons and whatever reason we read for, it is valid. There is no shame reading to pass time, to escape reality or for knowledge sake.

With my continued interest in reading books, I have discovered how reading makes me compassionate. Also, I read different genres and I enjoy fiction (a lot). In fiction and even non-fiction, different characters are introduced from different social class, race, background, and educational level. Progressively, we encounter different people that life has dealt with in different ways. These nuanced individuals are introduced to us, in ways books grip and suck us in, we become immersed in their lives. Sometimes, in that mental picture we create, we see ourselves playing that scripted role.

Some of these characters are good people, some terrible, some kind, frightful, reckless but with good storytelling, we are exposed to these people. We learn and try to understand the psyche of their behaviour with the words of the author.

How Reading begets compassion

Around the period I finished reading An American Marriage by Tayari Jones a book about a man wrongly accused of rape and later incarcerated. It made me think, it made me ask questions. We never really feel things until it hit close to home. It made me distinctly aware that I could treat people better if I were more compassionate. It made me remember the day I was standing at a Yaba when a prison van passed and one of the prisoners smiled at me and I turned my face away. This is not to imply that the individual was wrongly accused or anything. I could have just returned the smile.

In addition, I have read books about human trafficking and with the story that close to my hands, it made me realize the distance between these things happening in the world and our thought process.

Sometimes, we do not even know how sheltered we have been, how we hardly regard these things. I know we cannot shoulder all the problems of the world but maybe we can be more compassionate. Where we can do things bigger than our personal gain. Perhaps we will not just read about social issues and forget them. Maybe we can do some research on these social issues and look for ways we can help. Reading helps us to be well-rounded. Maybe reading and compassion are siblings.

First, I am still reading, I am still learning, I am still discovering the world, one book, one experience at a time. I hope you are too.

“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” – Garrison Keillor