Inspiration at last!

I had been feeling, for close to a year now, the lack of any reading material that could inspire, advise and entertain me. I had written in this blog some time ago about how the only books I seemed to have consumed gluttonously in my time in Pittsburgh were useless, forgetable and senseless romances. Yet, the books I had on hand which were not romances were hardly the inspirational, philosophically deep books that I felt the need for.

I am happy to report, at last, that I have found a book that suits my purposes completely: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

This is a book that is wise, humorous, tolerant and lays out a beautiful framework for living life without being pedagogical or preachy. There is such energy in the writing, it draws you in as soon as you read the first few words. This is a book that can be savored all life long, with deeper shades of meaning becoming apparent with growing experience.

Through Franklin's eyes, I can see America as it once was, a colony of England, and then as a new country. There is a quaintness in the idea of a journey from Boston to New York taking 3 days by boat, or with Philadelphia and Boston being considered two separate countries (Boston still, even in those days, being more expensive than Philadelphia), of having to row a boat from New York to Philadelphia because there was no wind for the sails. But what is also apparent is the drive, the hope and the determination of the people of the day to take things into their hands and make their lives better. Franklin's depiction of America reminds one of all that America stands for in the minds of people all over the world- a place where one can wrest control of one's fate and succeed. This is not the America of greed or obesity or parochialistic bickering that we see on TV. This is the very philosophy, the foundation of the IDEA of America- not the country, but the way of life.

It's funny how true Confucious's saying "When the student is ready, the teacher appears" is. Were I to have come across this book even 2 months ago when I was still finishing up my thesis, I would have raced through it and not really spent the time pondering it. Postdoctoral fellowship, while being more demanding, is also giving me the time and the space to think about life and how it ought to be lived.