what Sam said to Bobby applies to us all

Yesterday I was working at one of my all-time favorite library branches and had another experience of Serendipity By Bookdrop. The day after a holiday closure is always busy -- circulation is no joke in this system -- things have to keep moving or the door will be blocked by incoming materials and we'd have to read our way out of it! I was in the work room surrounded by big canvas bins full of books and dvds and cds -- I really do love this part because I get to see everything, even if it's just for a second. Anyway, I saw a familiar pair of eyes looking up from the bin and fished out Sam Cooke's SAR Record's Story 2 disc set. Woo hoo! Nobody had a hold on it so I brought it home, but not before I read the following on my break. This quote is Bobby Womack recalling what Sam told him about the utility of reading:

Sam was always into reading. He read black history a lot, he read Aristotle, he read the New Yorker and Playboy magazine, I mean he read all the time. Everywhere he went he would look and see where he could get a book--he didn't care what it was about, he would get something! He was just so locked into it, and I would say, When does this guy have time to write? But he was telling me,"'Bob, if you read, you gonna write much easier. You can say what's on your mind, because you're not interpreting, you know what I mean?'" He said, "'That's the only way you can grow. Otherwise you're going to write love songs for the rest of your life. But everything ain't about love. If you in a situation that you thought was supposed to be a certain way, you can write in a way where it's like an abstract painting. You can say things direct to people, and they can accept it. Because of the way you put it."