"One must be an inventor to read well.
There is then creative reading
as well as creative writing."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Emerson said it a different way: "What can we see, read, acquire, but ourselves? Take the book, my friend, and read your eyes out, you will never find there what I find."
As a practicing writer, I've often thought of that phrase, creative writing. However, I have never thought of creative reading. Yet, Ralph Waldo Emerson opens the whole idea to me that it matters so much less what we write or how well we write it. What matters more is how actively, and interestingly the reader reads that which was written.
How many times have you been so excited about a book and shared it with one or more friends only to find out that they either couldn't get into it, or they found it less than satisfying? Interesting, don't you think?
What we bring to the book, is at minimum, at least as important as what the book brings to us.
We Are Leading Even When We Are Following. . .
Spread Some Joy Today--The day is over. I'm late today. But, a smile is always welcome.
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