It is precisely because I knew Harry so well that the ominous,
thick column of smoke rising from behind his bungalow did
not cause me any concern. As I pulled into his driveway I
trusted that, as always, there would be a perfectly reasonable
explanation for this.
Harry was probably the most matter-of-fact, no-nonsense person
I had ever known. His entire life was lived in total consequence
of the implications of his attitudes and beliefs. Not surprisingly,
often this resulted in outright weird behaviour like when
I had first met him at high school. One day while walking
around the schoolyard during a break, I almost tripped over
a lanky, somewhat dishevelled looking person bent over to
tie his shoelaces. Or at least that is what I thought. A second
look showed that he had removed his shoelaces and was cutting
a section off with a rusty old penknife. I stopped and introduced
myself. Harry briefly looked at me, shook hands, and explained
that he had just realised that his shoelaces were too long.
He therefore straight away cut off the piece that he so obviously
could do without. After all, why should he carry something
as useless as two non-functional sections of shoelaces around
this world? That caught my attention and proved to be the
beginning of a wonderful friendship. We soon found out that
we shared an intense desire to question and understand absolutely
everything. We roamed the worlds of science, history, arts,
religion and philosophy in our quest to find answers. After
school our ways parted but, as often with such intense friendships,
we never lost touch. We met up whenever we could during semester
breaks and later on spent holidays together.
Stepping out of the car, I soaked up the beautiful atmosphere
of the warm, tropical day. However, the mellow mood was distinctly
disturbed by the smell of the thick smoke coming from behind
Harry’s bungalow. Fine ash and pieces of what looked
like charcoaled paper were gently drifting in the breeze.
Now I really was curious what Harry was burning there and
walked around the bungalow. The scene I witnessed was strange,
even by Harry’s standards. There he was standing with
a sly grin on his face, throwing books onto a roaring bonfire.
There were stacks of books piled right next to him. I recognised
them immediately; it looked like he had emptied the entire
contents of his library and was slowly converting them into
ashes. I was dumbstruck. Why on Earth would Harry burn his
beloved books, the source of so much of his knowledge? Finally,
he saw and greeted me; however, I could only look at him in
astonishment. Something radical must have happened and I already
looked forward to listening to a profound and well-thought
out explanation. ‘John’, he said, ‘I have
come to an earth-shattering conclusion as you can see and
smell. But first let’s sit down.’ His two garden
chairs were pulled away from the fire, as the heat of the
burning books was intense. I could not help but stare sadly
into the flames as pages after pages of books that I held
dear disappeared in front of my eyes. Never mind the monetary
value, which had hardly any meaning to Harry, but what about
the ideas and the knowledge that was contained in these books.
Settling into the chair I accepted a glass of red wine from
my friend, who was busy pouring one for himself. He sighed,
took a generous sip of his wine and obviously relished the
taste. ‘Beautiful stuff’, he added and rubbed
his stomach. With that, he went over to the fire and threw
another six books into the flames.
With the bonfire stoked and the flames roaring to his satisfaction,
my friend nestled back into his chair and looked up at the
darkening sky. Already, the first stars were visible despite
the flaming inferno a few meters in front of us. ‘John,
how many of the books in my library have you read?’
Harry suddenly asked me. I reclined and thought for a while
before answering: ‘Probably 50 % of what is burning
away there in the fire.’ I knew better than to ask Harry
to come to the point. He was taking me onto a journey at the
end of which would wait the answer as to why we were sitting
here, burning the contents of his library while drinking a
delicious red. Harry perfectly imitated the style of discussion
developed by the great Socrates in Athens. Feigning ignorance,
he would ask pointed questions of his audience and inexorably
lead them towards agreeing with his point of view. Pretending
to think deeply about my statement, Harry continued: ‘So
you have read, probably, about 600 of the 1,200 books I own.
Not too many, is it?’ I answered carefully: ‘What
difference would it make if I had read 800, 900 or all of
them?’ I could tell by the vaguest hint of a smug smile
crossing Harry’s face that I had delivered him exactly
the answer he wanted. Best regards from Socrates. ‘Okay,
that is of course an interesting point. Yes, what difference
would it make? Would you in any way have gained a significantly
more profound understanding of nature if you had absorbed
a few more of the facts and theories contained in these books?’
Harry looked at me intently. ‘I don’t say that
reading is a waste of time’, Harry continued, ‘but
at some point in your life, and I guess around 40 would be
a good moment, the focus has to shift to developing your own
worldview, rather than continuing to absorb those of others.’
I briefly pondered what Harry had said and replied: ‘You
are saying that, at some level, the accumulation of ever more
facts and theories of nature becomes basically meaningless?
It is rather more important to begin synthesising what you
have learned on your journey?’ Harry grinned broadly.
‘Precisely, here is an example. Look at the stars above
us. We will never know all there is to know about each individual
star – after all, there are billions of galaxies containing
billions of stars! However, what does it matter? Isn’t
it much more important to be aware of the general concepts
of stellar evolution and incorporate those into your own worldview?’
I could see Harry’s point but why burn all the books?
‘Well’, Harry continued, ‘I don’t
want to get distracted anymore by detailed descriptions of
individual facts and processes. As of today, I will focus
on understanding the nature of history, rather than keep on
studying the history of nature as before. I woke up this morning
knowing that to do this, I would have to get rid of unnecessary
distractions.’ This was a very Harry thing to say and
to do and he had me convinced. I raised my glass and said:
‘Harry, the fire is roaring, there is a beautiful red
to share – how about we make a start to the new phase
in our lives tonight?’ Harry smiled and remarked, while
refilling both our glasses: ‘I agree, let’s make
a start, old friend.’ Best regards from Socrates.
