Without any iota of disregard to John Mason’s assertion, “a conversation with the right person can be more valuable than many years of study”.  I, therefore, tender my unreserved kudos, gratitude, and appreciation to all my teachers; spiritual, secular and academic, but I must say, I never appreciated their input, thoughts and amiable teachings as much until my personal discovery now. The dividends of many years of study, creative thinking and reading, processing and ruminating on reason and thought cannot be overemphasized. The conviction borne out of personal or self-discovery is deeper, exact and stronger than what you are taught.

The reality and joy that dawns on you when you discover things about yourself surpasses the pains of searching. Conclusions and assertions drawn via personal reading, research, field meditation, studies and thorough consultation are more powerful and convincing than ready – made thought of others. In fact, this finding of yourself becomes your guilding principle and philosophy of life. Regretably, one of the disasters that looms from the electronic media world and gadgets is that, it leads to brain drain, dormancy and mental laziness in many and consequently turns them to consumers. This is why reading is so necessary.

1. However, as much as READING is done, the MEDIUM by which that is accomplished is in-material. Whether through PRINT media, hard-cover books or e-books, which can easily be carried about on various new gadgets like ipads, kindles, tabs etc. I would rather carry any of these new devices with several Bible translations and tens of thousands commentary than have my table over burdened with books un-ending.
2. As much as READING is done, the MODE by which we get it done is not relevant. A PICTURE, they say is worth more than a thousand words. Let’s imagine that everything one ever learn pouring through the “DRY” pages, were illustrated in a movie-like form, believe me, one would not only have cut the learning time and curves in half but, would have been able to recollect virtually more than 85% (arbitrary statistics) of it all.
3. As much as READING is done, the METHOD by which we get it done has little consequence. I agree some like the dry books, I do, and some movie-like I do too. But no matter which, just make sure you are reading. Most of the research I do is online. In fact, libraries around the world are going online. All that being said, I also think it will shorten ones learning period if one has a teacher. A man’s wisdom gotten in 70 years can be gotten either by READING the man i.e his books or by being taught, which someone called DISTILLED wisdom. But even at that, no matter how TALL your father is, you would have to grow your own HEIGHT.

It is unfortunate, that some in this generation would rather go singing, and dancing, stressing themselves over a football team that doesn’t even know they exist at all. Check our TV programs and reality shows; it’s all about singing and dancing competitions. Reading? Almost dead. Do we care? Imagine a generation with Google and Wikipedia but we are uneducated and unlearned. Do I know about football, leagues and various players, matches and scores? Yes!! Those are just a click away. But I would rather spend my all to read a book rather than kill myself over what has no value beyond being accurate in an argument with friends.

By: John Alabi

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