The Value Of Hanging Out With Dead Guys
Last weekend I hung out with two dead guys. In fact as I consider a lot of my ‘solitude’ life – I tend to spend a large amount of my time within the company of the deceased. Now you may say, ‘How can you do that? How can you have a conversation with the dead?’
Well it all started years ago, when things were a lot tougher in my life than they are now. I would take myself to the local university in the town that I lived and I would search for jewels. Now where do you find jewels in a library you may ask? Good question. Jewels to me, in the context of the library, are books that add value to my life. And that is where I met a whole group of dead guys. In fact, I had to search into the depths of the basement area of the university’s library before I dug up some incredible treasure that is dear to my heart even until this day.
So there I was in the deepest, darkest parts of the library, all alone, poring over multiple volumes of some of the original productions of a man called Ralph Waldo Emerson. Here was a man, even though I didn’t fully understand his language, that seemed to have a kindred spirit. Reading his material was like an entwining of our hearts and minds. I felt his words to the very depths of my being and from time to time I actually understood them. It was like I was drinking liquid gold. Now the books were so fragile that the pages were beginning to perish, and so ever so carefully I underlined key words and phrases with a lead pencil so that I could later type up those notes into a complete volume for further study.
Now you need to understand that I wasn’t a fan of everything he wrote, but what I liked, I really, really liked with an incredible passion. So from that day on I have made it my practice to hang around dead guys just like Emerson.
So last weekend, when I traveled to Sydney with my wife and daughter, and while they were attending a conference, I stole away to some strategic coffee shops near my hotel armed with only two books, my Bible and my journal. And there I stayed and sipped coffee in the auspicious company of my dear old friend Mr Emerson and another dear friend of mine Sir Francis Bacon who lived from 1560 until 1626.
So how do you find more of these dead guys you might ask? Well I continually discover whom these gentlemen read or comment about, and so enlarge my influential company one author at a time. Some I enjoy. Some I discard. But all I embrace at least for a time to glean the wisdom of the ages from their souls. For although they may be dead, they in fact burst forth with life with every turn of the page of one of their books.
And at some point as I read their books, I do sometimes pause for just one moment, thinking ahead of the day that I arrive in heaven and of how I will seek out some of these authors who have since departed from our shores. And I imagine us swapping stories and exchanging books and in the midst of this gathering we will from time to time be interrupted by the Son of God as He shares some key pieces from the good book that He too composed throughout the ages.
There is definitely great value to hang out with dead guys – and that value is life itself.
