I read three of his books in the course of five days: Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead and Seventh Son. They are all amazing, even though I have read all of them before. Speaker for the Dead was especially gripping. Reading it, it was like gospel was pouring from the pages into my eyes. I didn’t so much react to it as absorb it. The book spoke to me just as Ender spoke to his community. I realize now that I am a humanist. A strange humanist because I am more combative than most, but the truest form of humanist. I can (or at least try to) always put myself in the place of others and view things from his perspective. Sadly, his perspective is often so full of truisms and contradictions that he is unwilling to accept the conclusions one must make by following his own beliefs. I aspire to be like Ender as much as I can (hopefully less lonely). I want to offer my humanity and love to all things (including myself). Not because I ignore his faults, but because I boil them to the surface. And in exposing them for what they truly are, I can embrace them. I can embrace them wholly and openly.

The surprising thing for me to find was that Card is Mormon. Are these the truths this Church teaches? Or Christianity? Or religion in general? Should everyone understand and act with such humanity, I have no doubt that the world will be a better place.

In the mean time I plan to absorb Card like a sponge. Consume his words until they become my own. The same as I have done with Heinlein, Leibniz, Anselm, Descartes, libertarianism, economics, Homer, Wright…His words will cocoon me, enveloping me inside the strings of thought that bind his words together. Hibernating, I will synthesize both the mindset of Card and myself. They will mold, bend and shift as they combine into one. The metamorphosis completes, and I emerge a new self. I break free from the shackles of Card’s mind and climb out into the world a smarter, hungrier mind.

I thirst for more!

This entry was posted on 2004-11-30 at 14:46 and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.