“When things go right, I read. When they go wrong. I read some more.” Sara Nelson
In Texas
Because my mother loved to read, she encouraged me to become a page turner early on. It didn’t take much nudging on her part. My earliest memories echo with the sound of her melodious voice making those squiggly lines on paper come alive. Once I had the magic key for decoding those lines for myself, I read and read and read. Still do.
It seems that from the time I could walk, my mother took me to the Oak Cliff Public Library, a two-story gray stone structure. Long before all buildings were air-conditioned in Texas, this building with its thick walls offered a cooling relief in summer. Children’s books filled the basement level. I remember walking through the shelves, free to pull out any volume that struck my fancy. We’d take home large stacks of books that, in turn, my mother read to me.
By the time, I was 11, I was free to board the streetcar running in front of our house, ride to the exit for the library, walk up the wide stairway to the adult floor; and on my own, check out as many books as I could carry. Within that stone building, I discovered the world.
In Georgia
Therefore, I was surprised to learned that Mary Lane, that infamous senior English teacher at Waycross High School for 37 years, the first female instructor at Georgia Tech, and for a time, a writer for The Atlanta Journal’s Sunday Magazine, had a totally different childhood experience. In Soaring on a Grasshopper’s Back, she writes, “I was an addict of print - any print by the time I was twelve...I drove my family nearly crazy. My mother would walk the floor and wail, “Read! read! read! All you do is read! You’ll never amount to a row of pins!”
And then, her mother would challenge her to work an hour of math problems for every hour she read - so that she could amount to something. However, this little reader growing up in a small Georgia town without a library borrowed books from anyone who would lend them to her; and she would hid out, often in the little used parlor, to indulge her ravenous appetite for the printed word. It was a struggle to find enough material or enough hiding places to feed her addiction.
But it was in the words that Lane came alive and found her true calling.
In California
Of all the accounts about the brave deeds of pilot Chesley ’Sully’ Sullenberger who glided a commercial jet to a safe landing on the Hudson River in January, one story particularly caught my attention. Once home and away from the glaring cameras and intruding microphones, he called his public library. It seems that one of the books the captain had checked out either now resides in the soggy remains of the plane or at the bottom of the river.
As a tribute to his heroism, the library waived all fines or fees for the missing book. In addition to his heroism, I appreciate that he is a library patron. To me, that speaks volumes about the man. When I discussed the library’s response to his request with our librarian, she said, “Of course, that’s what we do. If someone’s house burns down, we don’t hold them liable for any library books now turned to ashes.”
Across America
Since the time of Miss Lane’s childhood, mine and even Captain Sullenberger, an explosion of technology has engulfed the entire world. The universe has become so dominated by technology that not only are satellites colliding, but also one of the United Methodist Women’s mission projects this year is to provide tech training for poverty-stricken women seeking employment to support their families.
However, many would complain that between texting, surfing the net, listening to Ipods, watching movies, playing games, sinking into couch-potatoism, there aren’t enough hours in the day for reading. Too bad because the nonreaders are the losers.
Ask those children who are avid readers about a movie they’ve seen based on a book they have read. To the child, they will acknowledge that the movie doesn’t begin to compare to the book. They are really saying that the movie makers, actors, musicians have created a far different image than they, the readers, have imagined as they turned the pages, and they much prefer those images floating around in their own minds.
Several years ago, the State of Georgia mandated that every student should read a million words a year - approximately 25 books. Students can count all words in their reading - stories, textbooks, newspapers, magazines, Internet , everything but texting, can be counted. The goal remains in place. Reading to learn is a must. Reading for pleasure is its own reward. But those who accept this challenge year after year glean an insight and wisdom from within those pages unavailable through any other format.
“Read across America Week,” is an annual event to encourage all people to stop - pick up a book, read, then savor the experience. It is also a time for parents and teachers once again to encourage children to discover their own imagination within the pages of a book.
2009
Comments