If the goal of the World Book's state entry authors is to sell me on visiting their state, Alaska is an early contender for the gold medal. After reading the Alaska entry, about the only thing convincing me not to move there is how goshdiddlydarn big the state is. There's no "heading north for the weekend" like there is here - "north" may as well be another country given how far away it is. Otherwise, I'm sold. Alaska's largest city (Anchorage) is slightly smaller than my hometown. And I call my hometown a "town" because it is a "city" in legal definition only (the machinations of its local "slightly richer than average" people notwithstanding). Otherwise, Alaska looks a lot like Michigan's Upper Peninsula, a place I am perpetually annoyed that my parents did not move us to when I was three, as they'd originally planned.

Meanwhile, "Albania" makes me think, once again, about all the nations in the world about which I know very little. Could I have pointed out Albania on a map before this morning? Probably not! Did I know Albania has a very long history of overthrowing various tyrants and that its state hero is a guy who told the Ottoman Empire where to stick its footstools? Definitely not.

I cannot help but feel I missed something. I'm not sure where my K-12 education would have stuck "read these six pages about each of 190+ countries" in the curriculum. Yet I'm sorry it didn't. Apparently, Albania has a much more interesting history than I realized, and that makes me suspect that pretty much every other country does too.

I've been writing a lot lately about becoming ungovernable - enough that I have now started a separate website on the subject. (I will not apologize for the Star Trek references.) I think reading the encyclopedia is part of that process for me.

At least, I've noticed that steeping my brain in "basic straightforward documented facts about who, what, where, and when things are" twice a day is changing my perspective on news and advertising. I'm neither wholesale accepting nor rejecting either; rather, it's like my brain has a yardstick against which to measure both the presentation and substance of claims. And it's far more willing to accept that I don't know enough about a lot of things to render a meaningful opinion.

If reading the encyclopedia has taught me one thing, it's that I don't know enough about most things to render a meaningful opinion. Emotional reactions are not "opinions," and they are "meaningful" only as a personal measure of my own internal states. From here, I can observe without feeling compelled to engage, which is a much more restful way to encounter the world.