I am a fan of retail therapy. The excitement surrounding new things is how I get high in life. And one of the perks of having my job is that I do not necessarily have to worry about how much I spend on things. [This will completely change once I am in law school, of course.]
Despite having to clean and organize the rest of my room after my move, I needed to get out of the apartment. I went to Borders to get some books and some coffee-type drink. Usually, I just peruse through certain sections, see if anything catches my attention, and then buy it. Sometimes I go in with a clear purpose of buying a specific book, but I always end up picking up a couple of more things. Today was no different.
I walked out of Borders with four new books that I probably do not have time to read before law school:
The Separation of Church and State: Writings on a Fundamental Freedom By America’s Founders, Forrest Church
Letters to a Young Conservative, Dinesh D’Souza
Democracy and the Constitution, Walter Burns
The Supreme Court and the Constitution: Readings in American Constitutional History, Stanley I. Kutler
Do you see a pattern? I never used to shop like this. I used to buy fiction or something entertaining and mindless. But now I find myself getting lost in the Politics or Law aisles of bookstores and actually enjoying myself.
I am at a point in my life where I am starting to reflect about what I believe in–including politics–and what more I can learn to build a strong foundation for those beliefs. So, I am trying to find books and articles that deal with a number of issues and presents different sides, in order to understand the current discussion that goes on everyday.
To help in my search for inner-truth, I post at a message board where the political threads are a great playground. I have access to discuss issues with people from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives and the chance to hammer out things.