You Are What You Read (or Watch)

Recently Terra and I were watching The Jane Austen Book Club. It is a chick-flick but had some interesting notes about relationships and male-female communication - more pointedly about our mis-communication.

Of the women in this movie, each one connects with one or another of the Austen heroines. This is to be expected but it was fascinating to see how their life situations dictated how they read the book and how reading the book dictated some of their life situations.

The one women who stuck me the most was the high school French teacher who is contemplating an adulterous relationship with one of her students. Her husband is absolutely nothing like her and it seems that part of the marriage was based on young adult passion and an idea that he will grow-up once they are in the real world. When the passion leaves and the husband does not show signs of growing up she finds budding passion in this student.

As the teacher plans to rendezvous with the student at a local hotel she waits for him across the street. When he shows up and she starts to cross the street sign, instead of saying walk/don't walk, says "What Would Jane Do". Knowing that Jane always defaulted to sensibilities over sensuality the idea of what she was about to do became real and she instead runs home to have a heart to heart with her husband. What she was reading impacted her rational for some of the larger decisions in her life.

What are you reading? If it is sensual do you find yourself always heading in that direction - at least mentally? Is it intellectual, comical, spiritual, informational? You can see how these books have a real impact. My challenge is to add the Bible to part of your reading diet. See how it impacts the way you think of world affairs or how you make some of the smaller decisions in life.