Man and God and Law

When I started this trip I knew I needed to take a bunch of reading material with me. I knew finding books in English wasn't going to be easy while I was travelling and my Spanish has improved, but reading a book in Spanish is still pretty exhausting mentally.

So I loaded up my bag with the books I had sitting around in my "To Read" pile. Great stuff about religion and philosophy, Marx and Freud, the shit I'm usually into reading. 7 books in total and they took up a lot of space in my bag, but I figured it would be worth it, because these books would provide so much knowledge and insight.

Well it's been 3 months on the road now. And I've skimmed through a few dozen pages and was bored me to tears. I've had no desire to read them, I no longer believe they can tell me anything that I can't figure out myself.

I used to mock people who talked about opening their eyes and seeing the world around them. I still kinda do in fact, but I think I have a little better idea of what they're talking about. Many people have told me I think too much, that I need to master my anxiety. I always ignored that criticism as simply daggers from the unenlightened. But maybe they're on to something.

I've decided I need to get rid of some stuff before I head over to Buenos Aires. And this whole pile of books is number one on the list. Turns out I don't need them anymore. Yes they can be interesting, and there are some great bits in there, but if you want to learn about life, I think you need to just live, not read a book about living.

The books are getting left at the hostel. Hopefully some bored philosophy major will stumble across them and put them to good use. I actually feel like they served my purpose perfectly without ever being opened.