Our assignment this week was to not read. Sounds asinine. Pretty much is.
(I obviously had a bad attitude about it.)
The idea of not reading is to stop cluttering your mind with the endless hours of meaningless information flow in order to open up some right-brained space for creativity.
I get it. My reading habit can definitely be a bit distracting at times. I can get really mired down in the responsibilities of staying on top of Facebook, Twitter, personal email, the news, the celebrity news (very important), movie reviews, weird Craig's List ads, multiple concurrent online Scrabble games, etcetera. In fact, I usually spend a good hour or two every morning getting all that stuff out of the way before I even think about work. Ironically, I like to think of it as my "creative process".
Alas, apparently I'll have to think of something else constructive to call it, because it turns out I am just as creative without it.
The analysis:
This may be the hardest thing I have ever denied myself of. I had no idea how addicted I was to reading. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm a writer, so reading is kinda healthy and good for me, professionally and spiritually.
On the one hand, these outlets are ways for me to channel my ADD and stay on the computer, when otherwise I would be constantly all over the place and never get anything done. On the other hand, they do fill my mind with a lot of useless information. Depending on your definition of useless.
The experience itself:
The first thing I noticed was how empty I felt without anything to read. I was sad about it. I missed words. I felt like I was being deprived. No—I felt like I was being psychologically tortured.
I made a list of all the things I could do instead of reading. I wrote it in huge letters on my chalkboard wall. And then I found myself reading it over and over again, until I caught myself at it and realized I was using it as an excuse to read something.
In conclusion:
I learned to read when I was four. That's 34 years of reading, so far. (I'm also very good at math, clearly.) Reading has been my salvation and refuge for most of my life. I'm not about to give it up. But it was a good practice to experience life without it for a week.
I'll have my book back now. Thanks.
