I think it’s a little obvious to point out that I haven’t posted very much lately. However, I renewed my domain subscription for another two years yesterday, so onthetables.com will be around, even if the postings aren’t.
Lots of things have happened in the past few weeks, and I feel like it would be pretty boring to try and describe them from this particular vantage point, so I’ll make note of a few things that I find important.
I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions, partly for the fact that I don’t like the feeling of failing to meet them and partly because I’m lazy. I did, however, have a few general ideas I though would be feasible and could improve my life in a small way. The first was to think more kindly on those less fortunate than me, which, although against most of the things in my nature, has been made more salient in my life since being surrounded by both a wealth of needy Chinese citizens and a particularly compassionate Caitlin. She even went so far as to have a blog post on the topic hijacked by the San Francisco Chronicle.
I haven’t done anything worth blogging about, but I wanted to point out it’s on the list.
The second thing I’ve been trying to do is to read more books. As many of you know, I have a pretty good ability to pretend to read books. In fact, I estimate I read less than 5% of what was required by my classes in college, most of which demanded essays summarizing and quoting the material I had not read.
As a result, I feel a little regret that I can have intelligent literary conversations about books I have not even read, so it’s been a goal of mine to read more and internet less (I make no promises about creating new verbs, though). I suppose this got in full swing when I started having my students read Harry Potter, which led to me rereading the entire series with about one book per week.
There wasn’t much reading after Christmas, when I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but I went through my book collection and picked out ones I wanted to bring back to China.
In the process of combing through my items, I discovered an unused Borders gift card, so I found myself the bearer of limited book-buying power. Unfortunately, I have a hard time making decisions, and it took three Borders locations, many hours, and one increasingly impatient Caitlin to use the entire value of the card. I think my main problem is that I buy most of my books through the Amazon Marketplace, meaning that I know I can get pretty much the same book cheaper if I look. And even though I know I didn’t pay for the card in the first place — and that it’s essentially free money, asking for me to buy something I normally wouldn’t —, I have a very difficult time buying a book at full price knowing I could get two or three for the same value. I eventually bought two bargain books and one at full price, just so I could relieve Caitlin of her patient girlfriend duties.
I suppose the reason for explaining all that is because I just finished my full-priced book, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs. Considering the amount of anguish that went into choosing the book, I expected to be let down because of the arbitrarily imposed high expectations. Fortunately, things worked out pretty well — both for my new reading appetite and the publisher’s full-priced sale.
I chose the book because it piqued several of my interests. I’ve studied religion for several years, a task I have increasingly come to realize is because I am drawn to comprehending the incomprehensibility of it. That isn’t to say I’m trying to understand the impossible, but rather, I’m amazed at the extent at which it is completely incapable of being understood.
A.J. Jacobs, a man formerly known for his successful quest to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, spends an entire year attempting to follow the bible as literally as possible. This is an openly agnostic man of Jewish heritage, embarking on a journey of ostracism and confusion to those around him. His experiment began with the simple pondering of what it would be like to obey the bible for a year — would this fulfill some religious requirement from God, and he would have a miraculous revelation?
One of the main reasons I found this book so interesting is that it paralleled my experience with the Mormons. He began his journey as a normal agnostic, with a genuine interest in understanding biblical religion. He experiences some pretty crazy things, many of which he disagrees with completely, but by the end, he understands that there is something to it — not necessarily of God, but at least a unifying force of general good.
I still am amazed at this man’s commitment to his quest. In one of the first parts of the book, he decides that he should pray three times a day for 10 minutes at a time. He decides to open his arms wide, “hoping to catch God’s signal.” The thing is, though, he genuinely tries to pray. This is a man who does not believe in God, trying more honestly than most who do.
I found the book in the Humor section, but I don’t know if that’s where I would put it. I found it more deeply moving than most of my religious studies textbooks and commentaries. I think that all those who have a stance on Judeo-Christian religion should read this book. It’s not a book by an agnostic proving that atheism is the only logical solution, and it’s not a book about his miraculous conversion. It’s a book about an agnostic who spends a year trying to understand religion and comes away with a deeper respect for others but ultimately the same agnostic status.
I don’t think anyone will be converted one way or the other by reading this book, but I do think there is a valuable level of respect and learning that can come from seeing this journey. And I think everyone could do with a little more respect and learning, especially me.
