an unembarrassed love of the library

I've been thinking a lot more about the things I wrote about last night.
It's amazing to me that a lot of this stuff is so readily available to me - if I want to get into Bible study, I can order a tonne of books online, or I can join lots of forums and chat rooms, or I can read other people's insights and articles and conclusions. Years ago, I would have to make the effort to travel to my nearest library, and then hope they had something relevant available. I'm so grateful for the new paradigm, and it is genuinely amazing to me still that I can look into all this without even leaving my home, but there's also a part of me that wishes it was still the old way.
Wouldn't it be incredible if everyone had to make an effort to find out everything for ourselves? If we had to work hard for information instead of having easy access from our fingertips? It wouldn't put us off, I feel, it would inspire us. And the ones who couldn't be bothered would never feel the benefits.
And what if we went even further back? To past centuries, when books were rare and libraries hundreds of miles apart, and the only way to learn was from a learned, experienced elder who has been taught by a learned, experienced elder before him. The only way to keep knowledge alive was to pass it on to another, and the only way to find things out was to travel to where you could find them. I think that's a past way of life we can be proud of.
And actually, the way things are going, I can see that as a possible future.

RC 22-9-25