Thursday Thoughts...

"Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds." 

 Roxane Gay

I wasn't sure about the opening line here - salvation has such a truly religious overtone to it that I baulked a bit. But then I read the rest of it and let salvation become a salve.

In particular I like how Ms Gay describes the twin opposites of losing yourself, and finding yourself, in stories and in books.

At first I guess it can seem counterintuitive to have a single something that can both find you and lose you, yet books and reading and stories are supremely capable of achieving both.

When we need solace, to retreat from the difficulties of the day or the world, we can lose ourselves in another's story. We can experience solitude.

At times when we are uncertain about things - we can find kinship and companionship, support and occasionally a kind of cheer squad in books and stories. We can find we are not alone.

The absolute magic of books.

Detail of wood inlay panel, The Studiolo from the Ducal Palace at Gubbio, 1478-82. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2013)