Read. Reading is the rock with which the tool of the mind is sharpened and honed. It is the shaper of the heart, and the vessel that contains the flowing water of human thought. Read and you will be quick with your tongue. Read and you will be interesting. Read and you will never be lost for words.

Ideas and memories take little to make their mark in the brain, but they are inviscid in nature, and are hence soon lost to the cycling winds if not solidified. Continuous reading – and what I mean by reading is the exposure to ideas in any form – is the only solution to mental frigidity. When something is read, it is understood, and when it is understood, it is remembered, and when it is remembered it is recalled, both within the frame of the mind, and in the realms of action.

When a fact is told to a child, and understood, it is truly remembered for life. “Swallowed gum takes 7 years to digest.” That is because the child has little else to base their thoughts and actions on. As such, the more emotional weight something has, the more it is ingrained in a human, in both thought and action. That is the job of an educator – educator and not just a teacher. Also, the more time passes from when something is initially learned, the emotional weight behind that thought is much lost, as is the memory or idea itself. We seldom open up the topic of how our day was a year or ten ago. “How was your day today?” and not, “how was your year?” or the like…

A note about wavelengths. As human beings, we like to follow the easy path. I strongly affirm this statement. You may say that actually, with willpower, we sometimes push ourselves to follow the more difficult one. But here, you are only referring to physical difficulty, as with someone who uses his mind to coerce his muscles to sprint up a steep hill. When motivated, remember, this path is the easier one emotionally and to the heart, as when the heart desires something, there is little more nourishing to it than satisfying its passion. And so remember when advising people, that you should not work on their actions, but rather their passions, for that is where their hearts peek, and are waiting for the race gates to open, to gallop at wind speed. Remember, a change in mind is a change in interests. A change in interests is a change in passion. And a change in passion is a change in heart. Remember, befriend only a person who you do not mind being the same as in heart. Instead, choose them for no other object but their heart: truly it is sufficient enough a reason.

Some questions remain, but I leave my post open ended, perhaps to fuel the readers’ (if any) thoughts, and perhaps to fuel my own. On a side note, please refer to my Snapshot post. Please comment if there is anything of interested to be added, I’m most sure there is…