By Christian Bergmann
It is an idea with ancient lineage (going back to Aristotle, in fact) that says the only way to learn virtue is to see it in action and then imitate it. This is something everybody understands, because from a young age we all have ‘heroes’ that we hold up as examples of virtuous people; or, at least, as examples of the life we aspire after, even if it isn’t wholly virtuous.
This has always been one of the reasons why the Catholic tradition has concentrated so much of its energy on holding up the saints: people who have demonstrated publicly their virtue so that the rest of us who are knee-deep in our own complacency can see them and be moved to pursue the same virtue. Desire for the good is stoked by seeing the good in action.
One of my heroes, although she is not a canonised saint, is the great American Catholic Dorothy Day (1897-1980). She was a woman who faced down the Great Depression and sought to build something good in the midst of harrowing misery: a social movement that was dedicated to the most vulnerable, the poor and the homeless, who were suffering deeply during the industrialised world’s most horrifying economic downturn.
She led an interesting life and was a moving and thoughtful writer in her own right. She founded the Catholic Worker movement, one that continues on to this day with around 200 communities internationally.
Reading her recently, I was struck by one of her suggestions for what to do during wartime. She was a woman who lived through both World Wars and was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War. She lived through the hardest of economic times in the Great Depression. Yet, one of her suggestions for what to do during wartime was to read books.
I was amazed. Yet, her reasoning was clear. “Turn off your radio,” she said. “Put away your daily paper.” She wanted people to turn away, even if only for a brief time, from the media that saturated their lives and read books that helped them gain perspective. Dorothy Day would recommend books that would “tell too of days of striving and of strife . . . of other centuries and also of our own.” In so doing, these books would “make us realise that all times are perilous, that men live in a dangerous world, in peril constantly of losing or maiming soul and body.”
Now, don’t forget, this was back when newspapers and radios were the only source of news and information. When we consider how much of our lives are saturated with news media now, and how much negativity we absorb through them on a daily basis, Day’s plea resonates all the more. If you’re anything like me, then I really struggle not to be affected by the constant stream of information that comes my way: newspapers, TV, radios, social media, YouTube, advertising, and the regular updates that come straight to my phone.
Maybe we need to take advice from a woman who knew what she was talking about. Maybe we need to immerse ourselves in literature that grounds us and keeps us steady amidst an age that we should realise is only one perilous age amongst many perilous ages. Not so that we can be nonchalant about the serious challenges ahead, but so that we can read about the good and strive to let the good shine through us for our own difficult times.
For this reason, my wife and I have compiled a list of books that we love and that have affected us deeply on our journey. Included here, however, are books that we want to read, ones that we know will broaden our horizon and ground us when we’re feeling unmoored. This list includes both fiction and nonfiction (F and NF respectively).
Christian Bergmann is a graduate of Campion College and is a freelance writer, Parishioner of Holy Family, a husband and a father of a baby due in July.