Mr. Personality: Book of the Month and other ramblings

By MR. PERSONALITY, Special to The Paper

October, the highlights for this month are Columbus Day and Halloween. Remember, Halloween is taken seriously on Temple Avenue and College Street. Summer fun is pretty much done, what with the children back in school. Be sure to check the Carnegie Library for children’s and adult’s programs for the fun holiday months ahead. I am adjusting to my recent increase in age, and I truly am looking forward to a bit of cooler weather for a refreshing change. 

My favorite past-time is still conversing with all the interesting people roaming the Courthouse Square, seeing bargains and goods from all the unique shops, each special in its own way. This is true for all the people as well. 

My third essay on self-talk is to bring your attention to the many ways we are conditioned and influenced by the collective thinkers of the past. Besides written stories shared down the years are also the many symbols that are found everywhere. The main way of some symbols has been lost or changed over the years, and some meanings have been added. New ones are made everyday with a host of new meanings, and are newly applied to everyday use. I point out such symbols as they may be noticed, strongly at first and little understood. This can undermine our positive self-talk.

I suggest you write down how many symbols you truly notice in the course of a day. What do they mean to you? Yes, each symbol can have different meanings to different people and at different times. Ponder on this: are the symbols in your life a positive or a negative influence?

The Book of the Month, The Power of Spoken Word by Florence Scovel Shinn, was written in 1945 (four years before I was born!) This small but powerful book is indeed pure faith in every sense of the word. It was written in a time where strong faith in God was as natural as breathing. Faith was beyond knowing or understanding, and commonly took precedence over everything. There was no individualism, only the collective, the community. This is before crystals replaced prayers and the symbol of the cross. Many people may find this book to be too simple in content and in expression. 

I myself seek such strong faith, as this book is truly overflowing on each page. Today, there is little of the old-school faith of the past, when people truly believed far more than they knew. Read for your own spiritual experience of faith, as it once was and should be again.

Until next time, Peace and Joy, Mr.Personality