my visual brain....

Last Monday night, I joined Kindle and Steve for sushi. Always good conversation with these two. (And who would have thought I'd enjoy eating raw fish?)

Kindle was sharing about one of the students at the learning center she works. He had a huge success at learning to read after 10 weeks. Kudos to the people who brought this ability into this little boy's life!

The skill to read--something I take for granted. I read ALL of the time. I almost always have a book in my purse, usually one in the car, one on my night stand, and sometimes a few others I've started laying throughout my place. Even when it's not a book...it's a blog or an email, a articles, or a cereal box. My eyes are always scanning to read something. My bookshelves overflow with both read and unread novels. I drool over book stores and have banned myself this year from buying new books until I read what I already have. When I was younger, I was always the child with the flash light under the covers long past my bed time (I blame my poor eye sight on that "bad" habit). I often forget that many people don't read like I do for whatever reason.

So I was fascinated to hear Kindle talk about the research about how the brain reads. All of the functional MRI data that shows the differences of what is working when different people read. And how typically people who read a lot have a lot of activity in the occipital lobe.

Ah ha! A connection...reading for me is such an escape. It's my ability to jump into another world and visit new people and places. My imagination while reading is always very vivid. No wonder I like to read so much. Those neurons in my occipital lobe must be firing at incredible rates. I wonder what the functional MRI would look like on my brain as i travel through time, visit imaginary lands, gain perspective on the past, dream about the future. The money I've spent on books in my lifetime probably could pay for quite a few vacations (which hopefully I can still take). But I can open the pages of a book and in minutes be transported to something beyond myself. I do this with non-fiction as well. Something new (or even familiar) to experience that is available just about anytime I want.

But somehow this visual reading wasn't always transferred in to reading the Bible. Something sucked the joy out of jumping into that world. Actually people did that, and I went along with the idea that there were just a lot of rules, static history, and completely irrelevant to what I was experiencing. There were times the stories came alive, but often it was pushed aside for another book--even books about the Bible. Yet, now I'm finding excitement again as I step into the stories with new eyes. Picturing Paul as he wrote letters to churches from jail cells, Moses leading people through a dessert, Isaiah telling his countrymen of how they led themselves into exile and about the coming hope of salvation. It's not always easy to swallow a lot of what happens in this collection of books. But this love story has so much to say about who God is, who we are, and a redemption that surpasses any other story (as well as the murder, deceit, affairs, seduction...). Arguments are made all the time about how to interpret the Bible...liberal or conservation, fundamental, in the context of evangelizing, or just a collection of myths and parables. There is room for these conversations and shouldn't be thrown out (although at times those discussions/debates/fights can be ridiculous and more about power and control then really about God or Jesus).

How exciting it is to rediscover this world again. Thousands of years ago, at specific times, to specific people. I can transport into another time and place about a people who I can relate. Sometimes I hurt with them, the pains of life, the devastation that forgetting God can bring, the loneliness, oppression, anger, injustice. Other times I rejoice, when someone has received mercy, justice has won out, love was shown to another. Some passages I just can't wrap my head around or just can't fathom reading (really Numbers? really? I can hardly pronounce the names yet alone care about this list).

But when I read other books I usually don't go in with the intention of judging but of learning. How humbling it is to come to this often difficult book and want to experience the good AND bad. To look at the big picture and then dive into the specific books, chapters, and characters. Oh if I could understand Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic to actually read these in their original languages with all the context of the time or the poetry of the writers (even understand their own lives and biases). Or maybe I really should just read more in English though!

Can I engage in these stories like I do other books? Maybe then I can open my heart to them as I open my head to visualizing these often confusing concepts and stories. Can these stories jump out in color instead of the black and white letters on thin sheets of paper?