Have you ever made a to-do list? It’s an interesting phenomenon. You get out a sheet of paper and pen or you open an app and mentally sort through all of the activities that could be accomplished. A host of potential tasks are laid out before you, but there are only twenty-four hours in a day, and you need to funnel them down to just those which are important enough for today.
So there are probably some criteria that you apply in order to figure out if a task is important enough to warrant a spot in your schedule. Maybe someone else is depending on you to get a work task finished, so that one easily makes it onto the list. Or perhaps you have a large family, and you know if you don’t do a load of laundry, you’ll get really behind. You may ask yourself any number of questions.
What do I stand to gain from getting this done?
How will getting this done benefit the people I love?
Is there a deadline for this activity, and is it fast-approaching?
Let me propose one more question that you should ask yourself when trying to determine if you should put a given activity on your to-do list:
How will this task shape me as a person?
Our Choices Shape Us
Whether we know it or not, what we do influences the kind of person that we become. Our practices influence our character. Practicing a musical instrument helps you to become more studious and patient. Having and providing for your children helps you to become more loving, responsible, and self-sacrificial. Welcoming guests into your home helps you to become more hospitable. It’s like C.S. Lewis said,
“Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.” (Mere Christianity, Book 3, Chapter 9: Charity)
"Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him.”
Now this doesn’t necessarily work the same way for all of the virtues. For instance, we aren’t necessarily made more patient by merely acting like we’re patient. However, the broader point remains. What we do with our actions affects our moral character. The kinds of activities we choose to engage in influence the kind of people we become.
It only takes a moment’s reflection to notice that this influence can be for the better or for the worse. Just as some activities can influence us positively, others can influence us negatively. When we engage in doom scrolling, we actually shorten our attention span. We reduce our own ability to focus on something for an extended period of time. Gossip and spreading rumors encourage arrogance, malice, and a delight in others’ failures. Overindulgence in food, shopping, or entertainment weakens self-control. If the kinds of choices we make shape who we become, and if we can be shaped in positive and negative directions, we’ll want to exercise discretion and intend to do the activities that will make us into better people while avoiding those that make us into worse people.
Let me propose one specific activity that you should seriously consider adding to your daily to-do list: read good books.
Reading Good Books
Put reading on your list. Reading requires sustained attention and trains us in patience. It helps us to become humble people who are good listeners. A consistent reading habit can help counteract the fragmented thinking fostered by digital media, forming us into calmer, more reflective, thoughtful people. So there are certain virtues that we can acquire merely by participating in the act of reading.
We should not only prioritize reading, but we should specifically prioritize reading books. Books as opposed to magazines, blogs, tweets, “news,” etc. help you to become a more focused person. Books require sustained engagement and perseverance, and they often reward you with greater understanding than what can be gained from a blog post or news article.
The eighteenth century European philosopher Edmund Burke coined the term moral imagination to describe the ability to perceive and love moral truth. This ability is formed by reading great literature and participating in traditions that pull us toward virtue. It is the part of you that longs to become a better friend after witnessing Sam’s dedication to Frodo in the Lord of the Rings. It’s also the part of you that wants to be able to endure suffering as you understand the way Christ suffered well. Good books have the ability to build and strengthen our moral imaginations.
If good books can help us become better people, how can bad books influence us? One of Burke’s followers, Russell Kirk, coined the term “diabolical imagination” to describe the twisting of the moral imagination. The diabolical imagination glorifies chaos, vice, and destruction, and leads to moral disintegration. He says, “The diabolical imagination delights in the perverse, the base, and the unnatural; it seeks to annihilate moral order and enthrone chaos.” While books that potentially strengthen the diabolical imagination should not be avoided wholesale, they should be approached with discernment – a discernment that our children do not have. Consequently, in our effort to raise wise and virtuous children and thereby help them in their journey towards sanctification, we should usher them to good books which strengthen their moral imaginations. As children see the virtues lived out in story form, it becomes easier for them to imagine what it would be like for them to exhibit the same virtues.
Good Books and Their Virtues
Good books will typically include protagonists who already are or learning to become exemplary in their character. They experience challenges that require courage and a willingness to change for the better. Here are some classic examples of stories that build and reinforce the reader’s moral imagination:
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame is a wonderful story that inspires readers to be loyal to their friends. The impulsive and vain Toad constantly gets himself into trouble, and his friends have to bail him out time and time again. Toad’s friends: Mole, Rat, and Badger, commit themselves to helping him, even though he protests. Love involves acting for the good of the other person. Sometimes that means they will disagree with you and even view your actions as betrayal. Toad’s friends act against his wishes for his own good.
Anne of Green Gables is a charming tale of an eleven-year-old orphan who has to adjust to life on Prince Edward Island. Anne has a disciplined and studious nature, but her overwhelming imagination gets her into trouble. She has to learn from her mistakes and conquer her hot temper. Growing into a mature young woman, she learns discipline of mind, humility, and faith in God.
Pinocchio is a story about the path to virtue if there ever was one. Being in fact a wooden marionette, Pinocchio cannot become a real boy until he becomes a virtuous boy. It’s not until he learns to be honest that he can enjoy being in communion with his father.
So if we want to become virtuous people, do we just need to read good books? Is that all that’s necessary? Of course not. Good literature influences our character, it does not determine it. Many pitfalls can ensnare us even if we have read all of the best books. However, good literature can be an ally in our twin quest to raise wise and virtuous children and to become wise and virtuous people ourselves.
But we’ll never do it if we don’t make it a priority. So get out your to-do list, and endeavor to read good literature to yourself and to your children. Take the opportunity to cultivate a rich moral imagination that draws you into virtuous living in service to Our Lord.