I have a number of long term reading projects that will take me until the end of my life or beyond. They are either multi-volume works or big, thick books with tiny print. I am adding another, The Works of John Adams. It was a Fathers’ Day gift and it looks interesting but it will be a long haul.
The early parts of the book are from Adams’ diary. One of my early observations was that it almost seems like I am often channeling John Adams. Often I could have written this from 1755.
“I can as easily still the fierce tempest or stop the rapid thunderbolt, as command the motions and operations of my own mind. I am dull and inactive, and all my resolutions, all the spirits I can muster are insufficient to rouse me from this senseless torpitude. My brains seem constantly in as great confusion and wild disorder as Milton’s chaos; they are numb, dead. I have never any bright, refulgent ideas . Everything appears in my mind and obscure, like the objects seen through a dirty glass or roiled water.” p. 13It is good to know that other people go through mental turmoil. I will never be a founding father but there are common elements of humanity that I find encouraging.
Adams, John. The Works of John Adams, Volume 1. Norwalk, Connecticut: The Easton Press, 1992.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.