Are you well read?

Last week I received an email from my M.S. thesis advisor who was also in my dissertation committee. Since my grad school days are long past, and since we have kept in touch, over the decades he has become more of a friend. He is in my spam email list and reciprocates in kind sending me mail on his own once in a while. This is what it said:

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I read two linked essays that immediately made me think of you and your own essays about reading and listening and thinking about reading and listening.  The first one titled "Is There Too Much Music?”, is about loving music but being overwhelmed by how much new music there is. The second titled “The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going To Miss Almost Everything”, is about the question of what does it mean to be well read when there are more good books than anyone could read in a lifetime.  It points to culling or surrendering as ways to cope. 

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I am always grateful to friends who send me such emails unsolicited. Stop now and do read those two pieces before continuing. They are not long. The posts themselves are nothing spectacular but touch upon a good theme that may apply to many of us interested in growing up well-read, well-exposed, culturally/politically/socially aware human beings. They reminded me of a late night ~20 years back around this time of the year in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Another LSU grad student friend of mine and I went to see a play for the first time in BR Little Theater. Since we were students, we got discounted tickets, watched the play which was very nicely put together and proved to be very entertaining with a good bit of humor, drama, mystery all thrown in. As we walked out into the cold night driving back to our apt., we were specifically discussing how despite being in BR for ~5 years, we never watched a play in BRLT and wondered how much else is going on right around us that we will thoroughly enjoy but never get to, be it music concerts, books, lectures, documentaries or any other material/event. We indeed felt a bit bad and promised ourselves to seek out more things that we should learn about/enjoy. Subsequently I did watch a few more plays, went to public libraries to get documentaries such as PBS's Eyes on the prize, Ken Burns' Civil War, US Constitution: The Delicate Balance (Preview) , watched series  like I, Cladius (Preview) , attended few good lectures, etc. 

I always regretted the fact that I never learned Indian classical music formally (which as you may know gets quite technical and tough and is usually a decade long pursuit to get it right), not reading fast enough that is exacerbated by daily family/work pressure, not listening to all the podcasts that I actually know are good ones, and so on. I think even about 10 years back this notion used to spill over into areas like visiting Disney World where I'd want to try every ride, see every show, etc. driving my wife crazy. She used to joke that she needs a vacation after going out on a vacation with me. :-) But I think as kids grow up, I have reluctantly reconciled myself to be more on the surrender side of the spectrum. So, when we go on vacation, I try to be satisfied as long as kids are having fun though we may not see everything, though I may not get to take good pictures/videos (as my son is keen on taking over the camera that makes him really happy and gives us poor pictures/videos :-). 

In my Android smartphone I have subscribed to "The Radiolab" and PRI's "TheWorld" podcasts though I am not listening to them everyday, been trying to finish up Brian Greene's "The Hidden Reality" for the past couple of months, started writing an article in Tamil, trying to watch Season 3 of this Danish TV serial called Borgen at thelinktv.org site.. Nothing is complete. But at least there are a pile of fun things to do as and when possible. Hopefully I will die a content man. :-) 
-sundar.