Do you remember when you learnt to drive?
Most people have positive memories about the experience, and the initial days are exhilarating. You just can’t wait to get behind the wheel again and go on a long drive, can you?
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There is an interesting piece of conversation between the Archbishop and La Trémouille in Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan. It goes like this:
LA TRÉMOUILLE: Well, come! What is a miracle?
THE ARCHBISHOP: A miracle, my friend, is an event which creates faith. That is the purpose and nature of miracles. They may seem very wonderful to the people who witness them, and very simple to those who perform them. That does not matter: if they confirm or create faith they are true miracles.
LA TRÉMOUILLE: Even when they are frauds, do you mean?
THE ARCHBISHOP: Frauds deceive. An event which creates faith does not deceive: therefore it is not a fraud, but a miracle.
In a book club discussion, not too long ago, someone said, “I don’t read fiction. It’s just a waste of time.” The remark stung me a bit because I read a lot of fiction. But as is usually my wont I did not say anything at the time because, maybe, the person was right. Maybe reading fiction was a waste of time.
I had, however, forgotten all about the discussion and was merrily going on with my fiction reading routine, until something brought the subject back to my attention. Not surprisingly, I turned to the Internet for answers and found that reading fiction, especially literary fiction, made you a better person indeed. There is even a published study and a review that talk about how reading fiction is good for you, even more than reading non-fiction.
My faith in fiction being restored, I then decided to look into my own experiences to figure out how reading has helped me.
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A quote from a popular Hindi movie goes:
“When your friend fails, you feel bad… but you feel worse when your friend comes first.”
A lot of people will agree with this. I know because I do.
To be truly happy for others is something very few people can do. How a person reacts to other people’s success is a true measure of how satisfied a person is with his or her own life. Usually another person’s success has little or no bearing on your life, and you yet you can’t be happy for the person, because that person’s success reminds you of your own failures.
Yesterday, as I was watching the Oscars I was thinking to myself: “This is an amazing event indeed. Not only are they doing it live, they are doing it without a single stutter in the entire show.”
This was around the time when Emma Stone got the Oscar for the best actress. I stopped watching after that as there was something else that demanded my immediate attention. A few minutes later, I logged on to Twitter and was surprised to see my Timeline flooded with tweets about the goof up at the Oscars.
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