Reading is an art. It is more than just comprehending words on paper. It is an interactive and lively experience for the imagination and a respite for the soul. Characters and story plots come alive in the mind. An entire world can be created simply by letting the imagination digest the language. Society today speeds along so fast that it doesn't take the time to stop and soak in life. Reading lets one enjoy the world around, through personal experiences and point of view. All memories and senses are awake when reading and yet while the outside world is still, the mind and imagination run wild. Reading gives temporary reprieve from the pressures of life and creates a new identity and a new environment. It is about learning. New ideas and opinions are introduced. Theories are proven or disproved. Reading is discovery in its most basic element.
- Heather Doerr
In researching this topic, I came across that quote. It's from a student, who was asked why reading was so important.
I think it's a wonderful answer.
One of the things that bothers me today is the small number of people I see reading. When I was growing up, as a young man, almost everyone carried around a book of some kind.
The thing that energized me to really reading was a teacher in fourth or fifth grade. She decided that she would read a chapter of " The Lion , The Witch, and the Wardrobe" each day - and she hooked us all from the first page. We would anxiously await the next day's chapter, to see what was going to happen next.
My family introduced me to reading at an early age, and over the years I have amassed quite a library of reading material. That ranges from some copies of the London Sunday Times dating from the last century, to an original Kipling ( Tales of My Own People)straight through to topical material from today.
I think the first book I ever took out of a library was in kindergarten, "The Cat in the Hat". I never stopped.
It's no wonder that a lot of children today are on medication to allow them to concentrate better. For their entire lives, they have always been quickly handed things, and ( for the most part) have not had to process any of it themselves.
When they get into school, and face the prospect of actually sitting down and reading something, it seems like an incredible challenge. For the first time, they have to be an active participant, and use their imagination.
One of the reasons I like Harry Potter so much, is due to the fact that series of books has allowed children to discover the joys of reading again. Anything that does that cannot be a bad thing.
I don't really care what anyone reads, as long AS they read. The simple act of doing that will actually change you. It's like a Gold's Gym for the mind.
When I was in college, I had an assignment to read a written by Suzanna Moody, who wrote about her experiences in nineteenth century Canada. I decided to sit outside on a sunny spring day, on Dufferin Terrace in Quebec City. I sat on a bench overlooking the St. Lawrence River, and started reading.
I quickly discovered Moody talking about arriving in Quebec City, and describing the exact location I was sitting in - a hundred years or so earlier. We were only separated by time...
That's the great thing about books, you can actually see the world through the eyes of another person. You can go back in time, and begin to understand how people saw their world back then - and how they really were not that much different from you and I in a lot of ways.
To close, one last example, a letter written by a Civil War soldier. We sometimes have this image of people in the past being somehow different than we are today.
The writer's name is Sullivan Ballou, and he is writing to his wife.
One such soldier was Major Sullivan Ballou of the Second Regiment, Rhode Island Volunteers. Then thirty-two years old, Ballou had overcome his family's poverty to start a promising career as a lawyer. He and his wife Sarah wanted to build a better life for their two boys, Edgar and Willie. An ardent Republican and a devoted supporter of Abraham Lincoln, Ballou had volunteered in the spring of 1861, and on June 19 he and his men had left Providence for Washington, D.C.
July 14th, 1861
Washington D.C.
My dear Sarah.
The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days -- perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.
Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure -- and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine 0 God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing -- perfectly willing -- to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.
But, my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows -- when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children -- is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country?
I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death -- and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country, and thee.
I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in thus hazarding the happiness of those I loved and I could not find one. A pure love of my country and of the principles have often advocated before the people and "the name of honor that I love more than I fear death" have called upon me, and I have obeyed.
Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.
The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me -- perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar -- that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.
Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.
But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night -- amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours -- always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.
Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.
As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers his and hers I call God's blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.
He was killed a week later, with twenty seven of his men, at the battle of Manassas.
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