There is a lie told so many times that hardly any believe there is any truth in but it is still repeated to the young from the old. One Day, This Will Help You. This time of you gnashing your teeth and wringing your hair in frustration is only the birthing pains of enlightenment. Or so the story goes.

How many times was I told, if I would only pay attention, that the current subject being taught would impart to me some life changing thing, some spark of the divine? I don’t know.

I was thinking, as I sit here at a little past 2 AM, that we are told lies by teachers. I say lies but it is more of a stretching of truth. If you know this, they say, you will one day… what? Be successful? Find true love? Be popular?

Of course, I may only be speaking out of some frustration on my part of taking classes I dislike for reasons I dislike. That is probably the reason. Still, I can’t help but to think of all the work and time poured into the pursuit of knowledge. All that distilled wisdom of the ages and it’s hand picked and delivered into the minds of the curious. Sort of.

It occurs to me that very little of the Classics are taught anymore. Sure, the whole subject of what – and who – are Classical is a dizzying maze of academical tomfoolery, but still. There are these great minds of times long past that are being covered in the dust of our digital dirges. It seems as if no one reads books anymore. Sure, people read, but do they Read? I just don’t know.

Maybe I’m lamenting something that was never to be. I mean, consider that that my own reading is done via ponderous photons and not via some ink drunk dead tree. Even now as I pause between pages I’m just pressing plastic to metal not squinting against the black as I copy verbatim manuscripts in some damp dusk.

Could it be that I was convinced? Could it be that I believed too much and seek to convert? Maybe It did help me. Is there something to gain in the the struggle for the gnostic? Could be. You should probably read a book. One Day It Might Help You.