At my formation session at our last fraternity meeting we talked about poverty. One part of that discussion was about having too much.
When it comes to me, books was one of the things that came up.
I just own too many of them. I once counted and found I had more than 2,000 books - and that was more than a decade ago.
Books are good, but like so many other good things, in excess they can hold us back. They are possessions that can possess us.
At least in my case they can.
Now that doesn't mean I should stop buying books - if they are books that I can really use. But I have books packed in boxes that I haven't looked at since we moved here into this smaller house 16 years ago! (My old house had enough room to have most of them out - I actually had a "library" room.)
So I'm adopting a rough rule of thumb: If I buy a book, I have to get rid of two other books. Maybe I'll give some to other people. Or maybe I'll donate them to the library for their book sales to help them raise money.
And to reduce the clutter in my life.
Pax et bonum
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1 comment:
yea I know what you mean! In our family we each have a small library in our rooms.
They can clutter but I still like having the atmosphere that goes with it. I'm useless lol.
I hope that when I go into the Order as a friar that, while I won't be owning any books (I'd probably put all my theology stuff in the community library), I will still keep my love of them. 'Buying one, giving two' sounds like a good idea, and I also think that having a 'book pool' for the fraternity is a great way to share and share alike - it's a shift of dynamic.
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