APPRECIATION: ALTERNATIVES TO READING (INPUT)

All you care about is reading. I’ve been accused of that, and worse. Reading is a special kind of interaction BLAH BLAH BLAH. I love those blahs, but I also appreciate alternatives to reading, other ways to get at similar results. Reading, at best, is a conversation and an inspiration and a way of receiving and remembering and connecting and adding and passing on information. Other things can do this too. Not in the same way, or often, as well. But they can.

I love a good conversation, participating in it, or even observing it. I love noticing things in the world, and experiencing things directly. I love radio interviews and podcasts and late night comedy shows. I love documentaries and movies and sitcoms and art galleries. I love listening John Cage’s song 4’33” in as many settings as I can. I love prayer. I love music and mosaics and sculpture and sermons and lectures and This American Life and The Moth. The point is input.

There’s the old saying of “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” (I think this is a chapter in one of Austin Kleon’s books.) It’s true. If you aren’t putting knowledge and influences IN then you won’t have much to let OUT. I’m exhausted just remembering the arguments I’ve half-heartedly participated in or near where people claim to be without influence, or self-made, or some other nonsensical bluster.

I would argue, and do, that reading and writing are the best way to learn certain things or have certain experiences. They aren’t the only way. Ultimately, I love the end of goals, and the experiences that reading and its myriads of similar alternatives can provide.