Ability to Read is a Blessing

In my view one of life’s greatest blessings is the ability to read. This, along with an available source of material, is a way of opening the world to us. We can find books for every interest. I once read a statement, “Someone who can read but doesn’t, is no better off than someone who cannot read.”

I can remember as a small child sitting on the arm of my dad’s chair and having him read the comics to me. He would be reading his evening paper after work and I would find the comic section (I called them the ‘funnies’) and take it to him. He never complained when he laid aside his paper and boosted me onto his lap or the arm of his chair and began to read.

Those are some of my earliest and best memories.

Later after I learned to read, I was fascinated with the Little Golden Books and think I must have read every one of those that was published.

Then I graduated to The Bobsey Twins and Nancy Drew series. There was never a lack of material to enjoy. I realize now that we could have had much more reading resources had we gone to the public library on a regular basis.

I remember as a junior high student, I got involved in some books that were so real to me, I actually believed that I was one of the characters in the stories. One of those books was about a teenage girl who was spending the summer at a camp. Another of the girls became lost one night, and the main character went out with the search party. Eventually the lost girl was located and I remember the feeling of relief and joy as I read this. As the members of the search party sat around the open fire outside, I could taste the hot chocolate they were drinking to warm themselves.

As I progressed into high school, we read some of the classics such as “A Tale of Two Cities.” We even studied some of Chaucer’s works, although I never learned to correctly pronounce the words in the language he used.

Over the years when I have entered a bookstore, I knew I would be there for likely several hours. I must admit that there have been times when I purchased a book that I had previously bought. Or I have checked out books from the library that I’d already read.

As I’ve gotten older and my eyes are not as good as they once were, I’ve often worried what I would do if I lost my ability to read. One of the advantages now is that so much good reading material is available in large print, and I do like that. I believe that these large print books are being made more available each year.

When David was a toddler and Starr a baby, I would sit in my rocker with Starr on my shoulder and David on the arm of my chair. We sat this way for hours, sometimes, but they never grew tired of hearing the stories.

A friend’s little boy came home from school and announced he’d learned to read. His mother pointed to the name embossed on the stove and said, “Read that.”

“We don’t read stoves, we read books, Mom.”

9-3-2009
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