I get the daily "Inspirational Quote" texted to me on my blackberry every morning; it's there when I wake up! This one was sent to me today, and it immediately made me think of Bellah's "Paying Attention":
"Reading is important — read between the lines. Don't swallow everything." – Gwendolyn Brooks
Besides just applying this to the idea that "paying attention" to what's important, I also thought of applying it to the news media (referencing what Dan Rather spoke about here!). We've seen and read all these conflicting articles about what actually happened when the CIA conducted the raid that ended in Bin Laden's killing. First we heard that he used a woman (supposedly his wife) as a shield, and was armed. Then we heard that he wasn't armed, and that a woman was killed because she "rushed forward." What are we to believe? We can't "swallow everything" that we read. I think that it is important to recognize that time is a factor in all of this Bin Laden news, and that the longer we wait, the more of a concrete story we will receive.
I also realize this quote can be applied to Black Elk Speaks! Neihardt adds so many of his own sentences and ideas to this book. We get different stories from different Native Americans. The reason we know this is because there are these side notes that tell us that "such-and-such section was added by Neihardt" or "Black Elk actually said this....". These sides notes help us read between the lines! And, we are reminded that we can't "swallow everything" that Neihardt writes because, of course, it is a translation; many things can get lost in a translation! This quote really helped remind me not to read everything that I read as truth; that I should constantly be using my critical thinking skills to read between the lines in order to search for the truth.
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