I have always been an avid re-reader of books, just as I also delight in re-watching favorite movies and television series. In some ways, this is due to finding comfort in the familiar and predictable, knowing that my imagination is not going to be assailed by inappropriate or untimely thoughts and images. But I have also learned that the pieces I enjoy returning to can be treasure troves, with new ideas and insights to be gained on each visit, and they can also be balms for an anxious mind over-burdened by the constant influx of the 24-hour news cycle.
G.K. Chesterton once said that his umbrella helped reveal to him why he knew the Catholic Church was for him. He said that whenever he went to non-Catholic churches, he would customarily leave his umbrella by the back door during the worship service. In these churches, his umbrella would always be there waiting for him when he went back out. But the first time he went into a Catholic church to hear Mass, his umbrella disappeared from the back of the church. Someone had stolen it.