The paper from which books are made is itself composed of wood products and water. Once the paper is in a book, however, adding additional water is never a good idea.
A few weeks back a dehumidifier we were running in the basement started running overtime and it iced up – then the ice melted. Water soaked a small section of carpeting on which were some shelves with books. A few books suffered some water damage. By the way, placing wet books in the freezer seems to help stem the tide of the damage and prevents mold. Our freezer has a few books in it for a time. Taking the books out of the freezer still requires that they dry.
Two books which came through this journey were themselves about spiritual journeys and have been a part of my own journey – Loren Eiseley, The Immense Journey and Thomas Merton, No Man Is An Island. I first read both of these books in college. Eiseley’s was assigned reading for a humanities course I took on the 1960s. Merton’s book was part of my coming more deeply into Christian faith after a time of wandering and doubt. I needed resources for a deeper, richer Christian faith than I had experienced before, intellectual and spiritual resources that could converse with the philosophers and psychologists I had been also reading. Merton was and has continued to be a help along the way.
Drying these books, I came across two passages that seem nicely complimentary. Eiseley begins his book with two quotes, this one from William Temple: Unless all existence is a medium of revelation, no particular revelation is possible. In his book, Merton writes the following: It gives great glory to God for a person to live in this world using and appreciating the good things of life without care, without anxiety, and without inordinate passion (85).
As summer recede and autumn ascends - with its cooler weather, its brilliant colors, its crisp apples it seems a good time to joyously appreciate the good things of life and see where God might be revealing Godself more deeply.
With Faith and With Feathers,
David
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