Reading

I'm currently reading The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel. It states this: "There's danger in being principled in the midst of a war, but I believe that it's more dangerous not to be."

What beautiful words!!! There is a war going on right now where people are being used as weapons. I believe people are (mostly) unknowingly assaulting others while turning a blind eye to the truth. People don't know who to trust or where to get reliable information. Uncertainty makes soldiers out of those who are reluctant to take a stand. It feels like a great escape to read about a "real" war, a more tangible war where each side is labeled and aware that a fight is afoot. I'm 40% of the way through the book and look forward to reading more. -------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of reading, it can be a clever teacher. I checked out a book, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, from the library and knew I would not understand a great deal of it but I wanted to take on a challenge. I read a huge chunk of it word for word and did learn a little bit but decided to skim the rest of the topics. This way, I could get an idea of all the topics broadly without trying to push so much in areas that I didn't have enough knowledge to dive deeper into. I feel like I learned quite a bit this way. One thing that really stuck with me was a small blurb about the ghost town of Pripyat in Ukraine, a town evacuated after radioactive material was released in 1986. I wished I could know more about this town and what it was like today. Later that day, I was substituting a chemistry class and the teacher was having the class watch a video about uranium, which is radioactive. A bit into the video, the host visits Pripyat!!! I got to hear more about the situation, see the town as it is today, learn about radioactive levels there currently, and just get more insight about the whole thing. I couldn't believe it! I read more about it, too, when I got home and found out Pripyat is the town linked to Chernobyl, which is a place I had heard about.