Christmas is a celebration of joy. Joy that Jesus Christ is born; the saviour of mankind.
To many religions, upon an important celebration such as Christmas, there is always a need for spiritual purification for the fulfillment and benefit of the prayers and for God to answer the prayers.
There are calls for repentance, for forgiveness and for avoidance of sins.
In addition to these spiritual preparations, there are also material preparations. Savings are made towards buying new clothes, plenty of food, beauty items and other material needs.
Feeding the soul and the body are good enough but what about feeding the intellect – the mind?
In a society where reading is considered an afterthought or even ascribed as what people who have free time do, knowledge is hidden away from them in the pages of books.
A lot of people find it very difficult to pick up a book to feed their mind. They think it’s a luxury or to some, reading is for lazy people. After all, to read is for those who are idle and have nothing tangible to do. To some it’s time wasting or for other people, it’s of no benefit. They can spend a lot on material enrichment and spiritual enrichment. Yet, they will not consider mind enrichment as something very important.
A lot of ideas are hidden away in books – and reading is not for only the elites. Reading is for everyone – children, men and women, literate and illiterate. There is no distinction as long as there is an ability to read and understand. There is a book for everyone.
When you look at this society, some of the issues that exist are because the culture of enriching the mind is low. And that is why a lot of manipulation of the mind exists. It is also a reason that society is not interactively robust. Conversations about government policies are low and that is why politicians can win elections by sharing money, rice and salt without presenting policies and their visions. It is also a reason the people care more about what they will get in the short-term than enduring policies that will benefit them more. But this is not the only negative side of not having a reading culture. There are more.
In this holiday season, pick an interesting book which abounds in whatever genre of your desire and enrich your mind. You will not regret doing so.
Reading can be fun and fulfilling.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays.
