sofia > Status Update

Also key to this mood is that you know if you had read the book some months earlier or perhaps in the future you would have been not only intellectually but spiritually jazzed about it which further frustrates you

All the time.

Glad to hear I’m not alone😩 how to overcome it is the question

I don't think it's the kind of thing you can demand from yourself. The problem of "objectively good books" is that we're not always ready to read them. I remember someone mentioning that, for some people, the "Summa Theologica" can become somewhat of a spiritual reading to the point of reaching the heart in an affective way (like St. Augustine's Confessions, but in a purer way). Now, try to imagine the mood and the experience we would need for that to happen to us xD

That’s a great observation Emmanuel and an apt example- I consider myself pretty thomistic but every interaction with the summa I’ve had has been mediated by someone explaining an article to me in a comprehensible and entertaining way. I think to read it unfiltered I would need to be some sort of learned Dominican monk😂 anyways, returning to the point, I guess the only solution is to be gentle with oneself and recognize the goodness of the book without demanding any specific personal sentiment, or to set it down and pick it back up at a more fruitful time?

sofia wrote: "That’s a great observation Emmanuel and an apt example- I consider myself pretty thomistic but every interaction with the summa I’ve had has been mediated by someone explaining an article to me in ..."

Funnily enough, the Summa was written to explain the faith to beginners.

sofia wrote: "That’s a great observation Emmanuel and an apt example- I consider myself pretty thomistic but every interaction with the summa I’ve had has been mediated by someone explaining an article to me in ..."

I do think so. Actually, it's something like adapting yourself to classical music or even Gregorian chant after years of listening to rock, or pop, or electro music. I went through this, and I remember clearly liking one music or another, but barely feeling anything at all. It's one of the good things about emotions: you can't always control what you feel or when, but you can somewhat condition them through habit

sofia wrote: "That’s a great observation Emmanuel and an apt example- I consider myself pretty thomistic but every interaction with the summa I’ve had has been mediated by someone explaining an article to me in ..."

You also said you often find yourself struggling with frustration. I think everyone does. It took me five years of feeling constantly frustrated for me to realize it was a good thing, or rather a sign that I was making the effort. Frustration tells us we're still not good enough and must keep pushing. As kids, we thought we would look cool while doing hard things, but we just feel miserable xD