Under my "Non-Reader Conversion Story" entry, I mentioned my mission comp. I failed to mention that I love her guts! She sent me this comment in an email and I like it so much, I want to share it. She has been an inspiration to me when it comes to reading great works. (Even if she doesn't think that audio books are considered "reading"). She knows so much about history and literature, it blows me away. And I just had an "ah-hah" (Oprah would be so proud) that her love of great literature and poignant, touching human relationships portrayed in that great literature, is why she is the most kind person I know. She used to rub the heads of strange kids as we passed them on the streets of Spain. I, on the other hand, was afraid of getting lice or something worse - you never know where these kids have been! Her journal entries about our days as missionaries were also filled with clever, witty, moving and tangible descriptions of the people we met and places we went, while mine were much, much more focused on sarcasm - which was my antidote for serving in Spain. Here's what she had to say:
"Whenever people say they don't like to read or they are not good at it, I think, "They just haven't found the right kind of books." People will read what interests them whether it's the sports page or Tacitus. Reading is so important, and more so with children. Children first learn by watching their parents. When children see parents reading, they become interested in reading. I wasn't that interested in reading when I was a kid. I watched my older sister reading and thought, "There must be something to this stuff because she does it for hours." When I finished my first book, Nancy Drew and the Mystery of the Crooked Chimney, I was so proud of myself I went into the kitchen and told my whole family. Ever since then I have cried over too many books to count. I have laughed outloud over Aristophanes. I threw Dostoyevsky across the room. While reading Pride and Prejudice I shouted, "He loves her! Darcy really loves her!" And while I can't remember the plot of any TV shows I watched in tenth grade, I sure remember crying my eyes out at midnight finishing Of Mice and Men. That's something you want to give your children. Whenever I am faced with how little common sense I seem to have, I think to myself, "I may not know a whole lot about the practical things of life, but I know heaps of beautiful things that make life worth living." And alot of those things I learned from books."
By our "Aunt Nit" (as my kids call her - her name is Nic, short for Niccole).
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1 comment:
Reading is my salvation. I wish I had a passion for teaching others to read, because everyone should have that opportunity. I liked your post about education, I was just reading that in Italian, the word education also means attitude, a way of acting, of presenting oneself, or relating to other people...it goes beyond the narrow meaning of education as we know of it today.
luv, patria
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