It's OK not to have an opinion in my opinion

Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one. (Various)

The passing of Queen Elizabeth II stimulated a good deal of discussion around the value of the monarchy to the UK. It seems that a requirement of CommonWealth citizenship is that one must be fervently supportive or actively dismissive of having a royal head of state. (I think England had a similar situation around the time of the first King Charles.)

And I don’t have an opinion about it one way or the other whether Great Britain needs royalty. Nor do I intend to form one. Why?

• I don’t have a horse in this race.
• I recognize the validity of multiple perspectives on the issue. 
• I don’t have enough information to make an informed decision.
• I have better things to learn and think about.

Social media, it seems, demands that everyone form an opinion about everything. That political Facebook post, that knee-jerk Tweet, that latest Instagram rumor, all are just begging for a response. No matter how ill-informed or ill-advised.

Next time you feel the urge to express an opinion, ask yourself if you would be willing to write a 1000 word essay that justifies your stance, including how the topic actually impacts you and the research you have done to make sure your views are supported by fact. If not, keep your opinion to yourself.

Thank you for contributing to a more rational world. It’s OK not to have an opinion

Books don't change; readers do

• I read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy when in high school. I loved it for the adventure story.
• I read it again in college. I loved it for the historical echoes of WWII.
• I read it again as an adult (just before the movie version was released). I loved it for the author’s writing style.

One story; three different readers. As the new LOTR  “prequel” streams, I may just need to read the books again. The words will be the same; the reader, I am sure, will not be.

I am a book rereader.* In the past few months I’ve reread Hassler’s Staggerford, Simmons The Fall of Hyperion, Berendt’s Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Child’s Personal, Connelly’s NIne Dragons, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Smith’s River God. And I am happy that I did.

I am fairly eclectic about the books I reread. What triggers my searching for them varies. The most fascinating rereads are those that I first read in high school such as Brave New World. Huxley’s classic may as well have been a completely new book since I remembered almost nothing about it.

What does rereading tell us about ourselves? Sometimes that our tastes have changed. Sometimes that we have become more culturally aware. And sometimes that we really are the same reader we were when much younger. Our experiences change us, and as we change, so does our relationship with what we read.

As an older reader, I increasingly need some worthwhile content in order to keep my interest as opposed to the simple plots loaded with action, sex, and violence that I craved as a younger reader. (Not that I turn my nose up at those elements now.) I perhaps have more patience and a broader range of topics and styles that keep my attention.

I believe it was Nancy Pearl (probably the closest thing to a celebrity librarian we have) who advised reading the first 50 pages of a book before deciding whether to continue or stop. Unless one was over 50 years old. If the reader was over 50, they should subtract their age from 100 and stop there to evaluate. My poor authors only get 30 pages to capture me.

* Old joke: advantages of dementia include that you are always making new friends and can hide your own Easter eggs. I’d add that you can always find new books to read as well.

Advice for living a long life: let me save you some time

• Eat healthy
• Get enough sleep
• Exercise regularly

Each time I succumb to click-bait links to articles promising the secrets to living a long life, the writings all boil down to the three pieces of advice above. After reading about a million of these pieces, I think I get the point.

Next time you see an article about living longer, just remember these three things, and read something original. You can thank me for all the time I have saved you later.