65. Sticky Texts

You’re cleaning your desk when you come across a book. You started it a long time ago, and then put it down one day and forgot about it entirely. You open it to the page where you left off, but you don’t recall the text. You go back to the start of the chapter and vague memories begin to float to the surface. The book is nonfiction and packed with information. You don’t remember the details but this doesn’t bother you.

You sit down with the neglected book and begin to read. The text comes alive as you process it. You examine each sentence thoroughly, even rereading when the meaning is too dense to be understood in a single pass. The writing is clear but there are so many details. You read with great care, but you know you cannot possibly retain everything.

Each chapter is a relentless barrage of information, wave after wave crashing onto the shores of your mind. There are many interesting bits — probably too many. You occasionally jot down a quick note when something really stands out. As for everything else, you allow it to recede back into the ocean of text.

You feel no need to retain anything in particular. It’s just knowledge. Facts, statistics, and other forms of information. This is not what you’re interested in obtaining. You know you’ll hold on to what matters most. You don’t have to force it. You don’t even need to try to remember. It will happen no matter what you do, as long as you continue to read attentively.

Parts of the text are sticking to you, somewhere deep inside. They may not be the parts you recognize as important. They will take root in you and grow into new appendages, new body parts that will shape your future understanding and actions. Whether or not you consciously perceive them is irrelevant. For the seeds are still there, embedded in the unreachable core of your awareness. In this way, every book you read quietly transforms into an unknowable but important part of who you are and who you will be.