You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture.  Just get people to stop reading them.

Goodness.  I think I could spend the rest of my blogging-life (blife?) simply posting Ray Bradbury quotes.  Maybe I will.  They would be easier to write–and much more enlightening for you to read–than the junk I come up with.  I could just copy and paste his magnificent thoughts onto my blank screen and then add my own special little touches to the mix.  (Like to this quote, for example, I might add:  or get people to only read books about vampire nookey.)  Did you know that Ray Bradbury didn’t spend a day in college, but rather spent ten years educating himself at his local public library?  He said by the time he was done, he’d read every book in the library and had written a thousand stories.  Goodness.

I have an idea.  Maybe rather than merely republishing his words, I could transform myself into the Ray Bradbury of the digital age.  I’ll simply adopt his general view of the universe and incorporate it into the issues that I contend with every day, thus impressing all readers with my insight and candor.  So: what do you think Mr. Bradbury’s positions would be on hair product, minivans, and Walmart?  Sunless tanner and turtlenecks?  Potlucks and PTA meetings, spandex and spinach lasagna, paying bills and paying allowance, dealing with teen drama and mom drama and, occasionally, the depressing lack thereof?

I don’t know.  But I do know I’m glad that, in the midst of the aforementioned minutiae which makes up my life, I can pick up a book by someone like Ray Bradbury and think about something a little larger than myself.  (I said a little larger, my faiths–don’t worry; I’m not getting humble on you.)  And I’m glad that I came across this quote.  Brilliant quotes by brilliant people make me happy.  You?

And speaking of you:  what do you think of this statement?  Are we there yet?

I know what I think.

Goodness.