In John Hersey’s classic of journalism, Hiroshima, seven survivors of the mission of the Enola Gay are profiled, and in the process the experience of surviving an atomic bomb blast is chillingly recreated for the reader.  One of the survivors he profiled was a young clerical worker named Toshiko Sasaki. She was sitting at a desk in the records department of the East Asia Tin Works at 8:15 am when the morning was overwhelmed by a white flash.  Her desk was between massive bookcases, which fell on top of her when the blast hit.  The sturdy office furniture provided a secure framework over her, while the books insulated her.  They also crushed her leg, crippling her for life.  Hersey writes with a reporter’s objective eye, but when he writes of Miss Sasaki, he indulges in this bit of editorial reflection:
 
“There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.” (p.21)
 
            This is one of those sentences that hits you like an unexpected line drive. It reminds me of the verse from Ecclesiastes where “the spokesman” indulges in a little editorial comment:
 
And further, my son, be admonished – of the making of many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness to the flesh. (Ecclesiastes 12.12)
 
            I, who love study, and many, many books have always found this verse hard to swallow.  How can a book that claims to have discovered life’s purpose assert such a thing? Perhaps the writer was crammed into an accelerated reading program in elementary school and forced to take the SOLs.  Perhaps the “weariness” he speaks of is a result of the 40 lb. backpack he had to lug home in third grade.
            Then again, he said the “making” of many books is endless not the “reading” of them.  One trip to the sale shelves at Barnes & Noble is enough proof that an endless supply of drivel seems to proceed from wood pulp. And the study I do is really pleasure reading for me.  I am not forced to pour over actuary tables, or memorize chemical reactions.
            Unfortunately, many think the studying I do – Bible study, falls into the category of actuary tables, owner’s manuals, and farm reports.  This is a very bad thing.  The Bible isn’t one of the many, endless books.  It is the ONE book, and it, readers confirm, is a source not of weariness, but of JOY.
 
Oh how I love your law!  It is my meditation all the day.  How sweet are your words to my taste; sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Unless your law was my joy, I would have perished in my affliction.
                                               Psalm 119: 97,103,92

from Aug. 24, 2005