Bene Legere Saecle Vincere

"Bene legere saecla vincere"

"To read well is to conquer the ages"

What does it mean to be well read? Mark Twain says “A person who won’t read has little advantage over one who can’t read.” For it is by reading that a man can have experiences. Most people, even in this modern self serving society will never achieve the benefits of traveling the world like a Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 days. Most people will never get the chance to live on West Egg, Long Island and meet fantastic people, and discover who they themselves are such as Nick in the Great Gatsby, most people will never have the experience of wearing, or rather bearing the weighty burden of an embroidered scarlet letter on our chest as Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter. These are all experiences, which we will probably never feel in our own personal life, but they are still so crucial to our development and the mapping out of our character and thus the decisions we make, these decisions that turn around to make us. It is only by reading that we can experience all the necessary parts of this world to gain proper perspective in all situations. When reading, the imagination that powers us to succeed is handed its wings, and as we turn the page, they open. In this visual, and obscenely lazy culture, many resort to movies to achieve this, and in a way, they are in fact accomplishing these goals of achieving perspective with an alarming rapidity; however, without imagination being allowed to work, the experience and memory becomes confined to that screen. When reading a book, it is easy to explore yourself in the situations and characters, to make up personalities, and transform the book and its situations into your own life. That A on your chest may not be for adultery, it may feel more like an N for nerdy or a W for weird, and as you take the distinctive experiences of Hester’s run down and abused state and society, you see Dimmesdale as that boyfriend or girlfriend you had who always wanted you to change or who loved you solely in secret and was aloof on the outside. Maybe Pearl, as your far weirder friend who you love, but it hurts because you feel she brings you down, maybe you are a teen mom ashamed at the fact of your child being here so soon but still struggling for you love it so much. Maybe Chillingworth is that evil ex who is now obsessed solely with screwing the rest of your life over, of twisting the knife already buried deep into your heart, maybe he represents the popular person at school who used to be your friend but now ridicules you incessantly just for pleasure. Maybe a lot of things in that book can be applied to you, and it is only by reading, and learning from their mistakes and victories just as you would your own and growing stronger and more prepared for the rest of life’s battles. By reading, we attain not only this alternate universe of learning, where we are able to achieve things far more advanced then bookless myopia. We are all the victims of a tragedy called life, but with the right tools placed in front of us, the right knowledge for what’s behind us, the right spirit for what lies ahead of us, and the right motives to what lies beyond, we may rise up, and though we all will fall victim to life, we may, just perhaps also fall victim to victory, to life and life abundantly. Books are our limits. On this earth, the limits of our victories are directly determined by the limits of our imagination, and it is through books that our imaginations are able to expound—to explode. We become, invariably what we read, the memories of the characters become directly entangled into our own and we are furthered. By reading, we are becoming these characters, conquering what they conquer, dying to what they die, and living…the life of not only ourselves but of all those people put forth in verse through all of the ages, by reading of them we become one with them, by this we become one with our decisions, sound in mind, omniscient in perspective, wholesome in purpose, and both willing and distinctly able…to conquer the ages, to live the lives we were meant, to dream the dreams we were meant to have and maybe fall victim to this life, and waking up on the blissful shores of glory, we awake with resounding voice, knowing that in all we did we should not trade one moment in this life, for it hath brought me here and resting in this eternity, both a victim to life and death, we have conquered both and eternity awaits you—conqueror.