How Books Can Save Democracy
I saw the micro-book How Books Can Save Democracy on a featured titles table at my favorite bookshop in Portland and immediately picked it up. A quick flip through its pages told me I needed to read it, to own a copy, devour it, and take anything it could offer, if only for a bit of encouragement.
Could books really save democracy? I wanted to know.
Let me start by saying this, dear reader — if you’re feeling skeptical, I share that feeling with you.
Last fall, I wrote to you about the books I was reading to prepare for the election. In it, I wrote this: “I want to read widely. I want this list to grow. I want my mind and heart to stay open and full of hope as we get closer to election season. I also want a diverse, well-rounded list to share with others when they ask for help.”
I was surprised when a friend I respect deeply responded with, “If I don’t like who you’re voting for, can we still be friends?” She was joking, of course, but it made for a few important conversations.
Just before the election, with my friend’s permission, I wrote about the exchange and why decency, inclusion, diversity, civility, and humanity were driving my decision. In the post, I shared that I did indeed believe we could all find a way to be friends, even if our political views and voting choices were vastly different.
I was shocked by some of the responses I received, especially the nasty ones, intrigued to discover that the nastiest response of all came from someone I grew up knowing — a woman shaming me for reading other books and telling me to get back to the Bible, and maybe just one other book written by a guest host on her favorite news channel (I think you know the one).
We all know what happened next.
Many of us were shocked at the outcome of the election and all that’s happened since. Some of us were deeply impacted personally when friends lost jobs or were targeted for more serious actions. Far too many of us suffered the loss of family gatherings over the holidays last year and have since been broken by family members whose secret beliefs came rushing out, forcing conversations that broke those relationships into wide-open chasms of pain. Now, it’s become easy to grow fearful of the future as we see democracy itself threatened.
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Enter How Books Can Save Democracy by Michael Fischer, and a few passages I found especially enlightening (best read with a good whole milk latté at your favorite coffee shop). . .
I loved the book, but I don’t actually believe books can save democracy, or the idea we call democracy. I do, however, think books matter. A lot. I think talking about books matters. A lot.
I think readers can save democracy.
Especially readers who choose books that create for them “a greater pliancy of thinking, a greater openness to the concerns of others. . . empathy” with eyes wide open to “the lives of people these readers would otherwise never know.”
Especially readers who choose to talk about books, questions, ideas, hopes, dreams, concerns, and at the end of the day choose to believe “If hatred can gather momentum and spread, so can compassion and understanding.”
That’s us.
Many people who knew me before 2015 or so like to say, “My god, you’ve changed.” To which I reply, “I hope so.” And for those who take the time to ask why or how exactly, I point to books and travel as the culprits.
Because during those years when I stopped reading the same Book over and over again (and over and over again, again) and started reading widely, broadly, indiscriminately real, true, present-day stories written by people alive right here, right now, all over the world, from all sorts of cultures, backgrounds, programming, and upbringing, everything changed for me.
Everything.
And the more I read, the more I see how much I truly do not know yet, the more I hope to learn. The fact that you’re here tells me you might be feeling something similar.
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I’d like to close with a gentle call to action — It is clearer day by day that our political leaders cannot get us out of our current situation. Other people fare no better; they may actually be dealing with things we cannot imagine that make them less well-suited for the job than we are. It’s up to us.
It’s our turn.
I want to be part of the solution, but I don’t want to cause more harm than good, which is what my zealous, ill-informed past self certainly would have done. So, far too often, I’m silent.
I also realize there are serious consequences to speaking out, both safety and monetarily speaking, so I’m often more silent than I would like to be. But I’m tired of not doing my part.
How Books Can Save Democracy by Michael Fischer helped me realize that, at least in some small way, by reading good books, I already am. So are you. As long as we keep reading.
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I hope there’s something cozy, something light, and something breathtakingly beautiful in store for you this weekend, friend.
Should this all feel overwhelming right now, and you find yourself in need of something funny to lighten the load, here’s a link to the funniest movie I’ve seen in a long, long while.
Laughter helps.
Good books help.
Talking about those books helps.
Creating more than we consume helps, too.
And should you have thoughts you’d like to share or need a friend or a listening ear, I’m only an email away.
Always.
💛
Celeste
