We Have Lived a Thousand Lives

You know that feeling when you finish a book?

The one where you can't figure out how the rest of the world is still moving.

Like, how can they not know the importance of what just happened at the conclusion or whatever it is at the time you look up?

Maybe someone died.  Maybe you're clutching the book to your chest or wanting to throw it across the room or both.  Maybe you've already put the book down and are contemplating it --already comparing it to your life.

Maybe, hopefully not, someone is there to witness it.  Maybe they said something to you about it.

“I don't know why you read if it makes you so sad.”

“You're acting like a completely different person.”

“It's just a book.”

Just.

A.

Book.

But, yes.  I do act like a different person.  I read because I refuse to be the same person throughout my life.  I require personal growth and discovery to be content.  Each book brings a new thought.  Every book is a new idea.  Every book is a new person, wrapped in pages.  Reading unwraps the person directly into your mind.  This person shows you things you never thought about before.

This person leaves a little bit of itself in you when the book is done.  You absorb the ideas and feelings.  Part of you becomes this person.

Part of you changes.

We all know the studies about how people who read a variety of genres and who read often are more open minded and reflective.  People who like to read can spend hours comparing the world we know to books.  We find bits of ourselves in everyone.  We can easily identify our faults.

We see ourselves equal to everyone.

Because we have been everyone.

And yet, we know there are some things people go through that we can never understand.

But we are different after every book.  We have changed.

We have lived a thousand lives.