quiero conocer.

i forgot.

i forgot about my escape. my hideaway. my heaven.
someone or something at some point surreptitiously convinced me that i needed to be reading exclusively non-fiction. because those are the books that adults read. those are the books you read if you are going to learn about theology or architecture or psychology. books that have an index and footnotes and references are more intellectual.

well, to that i say: bullshit.

graphic novels. short stories. young adult literature. poetry. children’s book. fiction. adventure. mystery.
man, i forgot how much i absolutely LOVE reading. well…that’s a lie. from an intellectual-knowing (saber, for those of you with a basic understanding of spanish) standpoint, i didn’t forget. but from and experience-knowing (conocer) standpoint, i most definitely forgot.

other people get lost in the internet or gaming or virtual realities, laughing at gifs and memes and viral videos, creating profiles, posting status updates, scrolling through blogs, meeting objectives, searching for treasure, fighting dragons and terrorists, checking fantasy football stats… and for the first time i think i finally understand in a way that i never really have before. the computer is their book.  browsing is their reading. i spend hours sitting on the couch totally and completely absorbed in a book, enthralled by a plot line and character development and new vocabulary, hoping nobody will interrupt me.  in my mind i often put my hobbies above the hobbies of others because i think ‘those are a waste of time; what are you gaining from that?’ or ‘they just want to be entertained without having to do any work.’ and who knows, maybe those things are partly true.  but let’s be honest, at some level we are searching for the same thing. we are looking for adventure, entertainment, fulfillment, accomplishment, and even relationship.  we are living vicariously because we don’t really know what it means to live any other way.