Thursday Thoughts...

"Books are disruptors. Books are questions. I’m not talking about How To Manuals that pretend to give us answers. I’m talking about the noisy row that breaks out in our heads when we have to think past ourselves. 

 Do I believe this? How is this making me feel? Why am I getting angry? How come I suddenly recognise what I haven’t been able to put into words?"

Jeanette Winterson

I think the image I love best from this quote is "the noisy row that breaks out in our heads". I am often in awe of how swiftly our mind makes connections, jumping from one thought, notion or subject to another with lightning speed. And then back again  These words make me think about those time when you see with great clarity both this side AND that side. When you recognise the contradiction; but feel the great comfort of harmony simultaneously.

Ms Winterson loves books and all that they offer - after all that they offered her in a difficult childhood.  She is not one for the easy; nor the prescriptive; but she is one for the ideas and thoughts and challenges.

She is speaking here I think of when books take us out of our comfort zones and ask us to consider new perspectives. It might be the language used; the relationships developed; the perspective from which the book is written.

I know there are times in my life when all I want is the familiar, the cosy, the swaddling, of a book that I feel comfortable with. 

I also know I need to bring the other books into my life on a regular basis as well. How else does one continue to learn and grow? To be a better human? To understand life and others more fully?

And when making books, I have to sometimes explore the tougher side of things; the things that make me uncomfortable or fearful. And to constantly be learning from others.