The most interesting read I ever came across was when a writer had me reading thoughts I was having when I strayed away from the information I was being presented previously in the story. Simply put, I was thinking about how the information from the story related to my life, like readers do, when the writer referred to what I was thinking by having me read the same thoughts again, writing exactly what I was thinking earlier in the chapter.
It was incredible and done intentionally.
The writer had me read my own mind. At that point I was reading his work but I was reading my previous wandering thoughts right then.
During the story I had lost interest in Dionysus as a metaphor for social issues in the writer’s country, which was long before the time I got my hands on the book. I then thought back to a time in my life when I had heard of Dionysus. I began to remember a modern idol that taught me the most minute details of the gods’ purpose but through music instead.
Neither my rock star idol nor I were born around the time of that writing. It is with great insight that I was shown that idols do not change over time. An idol is an idol at any point in the history of human imagination and serves the same purpose in the long run.
It is with more experience and hindsight that I am able to understand that the idols we look up to in our lifetime are not looked at in the same way by everybody all at once. People change but the idol stays the same. It is up to the individual to decide which idols they will let into their lives. It is up to God when a human being realizes they themselves have been or will be looked up to as an idol by somebody else during their lifetime, on some level.
There is only one way to see yourself and one way you can not see yourself – as an idol and not as God.
The greatest news I received today is that I am or will be an idol to somebody somewhere someday, even if it’s only by my own kids. I will continue to do my best.
I’m glad to have remembered this insight into one of my favorite reads of all time. The writer is an idol of mine and an idol to a lot of others as well. He too also had people he idolized and plenty of gods he tried to interpret. It drove him mad.
On another note, the worst news report I ever saw on television was when the anchor was telling us that a state record for sturgeon size was set in the area. By the end of the broadcast they failed to tell us the weight of the fish. I don’t want to make that same mistake so I should probably name the author who gave me the greatest news I received today from that incredible piece of writing so long ago. Maybe you’ve already figured out who that is. Maybe the same thing happened to you in a different part of his writing; maybe at the same point; maybe hindsight is more common than I’ve let on; maybe that kind of genius has a name already. An idol is an idol after all.
Francis Erich McElroy 