America’s 26th President was a voracious reader. He read a book a day, sometimes more when he was on vacation. The Theodore Roosevelt Center mentions that during his 1900 campaign, he scheduled four and a half hours of reading into his day. His love of books was well known, and he lauded reading every chance he could get. In Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography T. R. spends time advising the…

2.21.21

28/50 days of productivity

I've been having a rough day dysphoriawise, so I'm coping with a cup of tea and a good book.

“‘Resolution:  Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve’--was on eof the rules for success framed by America’s first ‘self-made’ man.”

Read from Franklin’s Autobiography..........Vol. 1, pp. 79-85

I have been toying with the idea of actually following through the Reading Guide that is part of the Harvard Classics as a resolution for the past few years.  But as each year has dawned, I put it off until I could not conceivable catch up and do it properly.  This past year, however, has been a year of adulting firsts:  first house, first newish car, and first time actively trying to settle down somewhere.

So, this year, I am going to do it.  I read 104 books last year.  I read 116  the year before that.  This year, I am going to read 52 books and complete the Harvard Classics Reading Guide, which will give me glimpses of hundreds of years of classical literature through 15-minutes of reading a day.  I really wanted to go to sleep and put this off until tomorrow, but instead, I went into my garage and unpacked 4 more boxes of books to find and shelve many of my classics.  My bookcases surrounding my tv already look much better!

For this first day, I am reading out of Franklin’s autobiography.

Thoughts after reading:

* venery is a noun meaning sexual indulgence.  Good to know...

Franklin wrote this when he was 79, as he claims in this excerpt.  He lists the 13 different virtues as he sees them and lists them in an order of importance with which to work on them.  The first four, in order, being Temperance, Silence, Order, and Resolution.  He described marking a little book with a red grid of thirteen by seven.  The seven days at the top were for the days of the week, and the thirteen rows were for each of the virtues.  He decided to work only on one virtue at a time so as to not overwhelm himself and make it a manageable task.  Every night, he would make a black mark for each failing of a virtue, with the goal of not needing to make any marks for the virtue he was concentrating on that week.  He wrote of being surprised by how unvirtuous he was, but that by going through the cycle four times a year, he could gradually lesson his faults, so that he would then go through it twice a year, then once, and then just carry the book with him.

I really enjoyed reading this excerpt, and I would not mind reading the full autobiography.  It was interesting seeing such a historically renowned individual detail their own failings and how they systematically worked to overcome them.  The fact that Order was the one that he continually struggled with the most, and never succeeded at despite growing better through the attempts, struck a chord with me since it is probably my biggest struggle as well.  I also like the idea of working on one thing at a time and not overwhelming myself.  I have definitely struggled with that in the past.  Here is to hoping for good luck in 2020!