I unboxed all the books I’ve been hauling around from home-to-home for the last twenty-four years. Therefore, I needed a bookshelf. The Encyclopedic Bookshelf is what happened.
What?
It’s a long story. Maybe a book? However, briefly, here’s the story.
Ever since I closed my ‘great idea’ – to save the world – of building and opening a bookstore; I’ve been hauling around boxes of books. Because I figured I’d do it again. Somewhere, sometime, somehow. Because it was a great idea.
Now, twenty-four years later and at the over-ripe age of seventy-six, I know better. Bookstores and books aren’t going to save the world. Nevertheless, here I am now in this tiny apartment with some thirty boxes of books stacked behind a table cloth. Moreover, I know this likely is my last rodeo as an independent actor. Or player in the game. Therefore, I might as well enjoy this time and space.
Unbox them damn books, I said to myself. You’ll figure something out. You always have. So I did, despite thinking I might be biting off more than I could chew. Then I thought, It’s now or never. Because I wasn’t going to all of sudden get younger and stronger.
Furthermore, I had no money for a new bookshelf. My thought was I’d just line the wall with them. And then, BINGO!
It took me about eight hours over two days. Much quicker and easier than I’d thought.
And Then What Happened?
Well, I just love sitting next to all those wonderful books. Because it gives me something to do during commercials on the TV. I read the titles and think of the stories they told. The books are from 2001 and before. Most of which I’d read. They’re leftovers from before. Before the world went crazy after September eleventh, 2001. And yet …
What’s Changed?
What’s changed? Well, technology sure has. We’ve gotten so much better at killing from a distance. Besides that? Turns out, not much. When it comes to this stuff.*
The stuff that writers write about. Moreover, storying telling across the board. For instance: I just picked up (from the library) Katheryn Paige Harden’s new book, Original Sin: On the Genetics of Vice, The Problem of Blame, and The Future of Forgiveness.
McLean Hospital is where Lindsay Clancy was “treated” for her “Adjustment Disorder”.
Additionally, there is the current Christa Pike case. Both are female killers and the question of “what makes killers kill” is paramount. As well as, what should be done with them?
If you look at the Encyclopedic Bookshelf’s fourth shelf and scan left, you’ll see Base Instincts: What Makes Killers Kill (2001) by Jonathan H. Pincus, M.D.
Not Much
has changed. Twenty four years has passed and “we” still can’t figure it out. Why some people kill and others don’t. How come some people acquire, and suffer, from PTSD, and other mental illnesses, yet others don’t. Why you are who you are and why I am who I am.
In Conclusion
This post is certainly no book–just a curious prod into human behavior and why we do what we do. Moreover, WHO ARE YOU? Who am I? Am I the only one who could’ve come up with the idea of the Encyclopedic Bookshelf? And made it happen?
Encyclopedias as books are antiquated. Gone forever, I suppose. (Thanks to technology.) Have I started a new trend? I probably should have made a “reel”, or video, or meme. That’s changed! How we communicate.
I, too, am antiquated. At least I’m not a killer. Just a reader, writer, thinker, and drinker. Furthermore, I don’t believe, or think, I chose this life of mine.*
What about you? What do you think about any of these timeless questions? Briefly. Please.
- I’ve argued in this blog that “things” have gotten worse. Regarding behavior and what makes killers kill? there has been some progress made. The human genome has been mapped, there is more research via twin studies and such. However, not with regard to prevention, treatment, accountability, and punishment regarding why some people break bad. And why we keep waging war.
- The question of choice, or Free Will, has certainly NOT been resolved.