Thank you. Have you ever caught a glimpse of the spine of a book quietly, discreetly, yet purposefully peeking from amongst the millions on the shelf, like a slight poke from the quiet child in the group, the sight of an elderly couple holding hands, witnessing the innocence of a new born baby calf and its freedom of life as it chases your car tail high flapping back and forth as the five year mothers look on chewing their cud. Okay, a little bit much on the last one. But its those things that make us STOP.REMEMBER.THINK.or rather on the contrary, to stop thinking. Today as I helped what I thought to be an out of control rambunctious group of third graders, discover the joy, and sense of self accomplishment in using good old Encyclopedias as they overcame the downfall of not having enough computers for everyone to use on finding information about their current research projects. Watching them reach for books in the dusty reference corner, and flip through the pages, eyes lighting up at new words and places they had never heard of or seen before was incredible. As they discovered a new species of the animal kingdom and changed their topic from jackrabbit to the exotic and viscious Jackal, those “lucky” students who were picking away at search engines were stuck reading cheap advertisements trying to find out what the name is of a baby monkey. Something to be said here. There. Gosh, seeing them shuffle through the pages, puling the books off the shelves, minds being exposed to new (just because its in an old book doesn’t make the information worthless) things was AWESOME! At the time I thought nothing of it, until, when the bell rang, and I was walking back across the library, I spotted it.
Is it just me, or did any of you get wrapped up in fictional words compliments of talented individuals who provided an escape, a world of wonder, of joy and laughter where you fought evil and not with swords but with acts of kindness and bold perseverance? Sometimes with the help of a handy sidekick mouse or cricket? Where kindness worked wonders and people acted purely out of love and selflessness. I remember reading Roald Dahl and drinking up every word, every chapter! Where did I forget that? To love the strange works? To love to read? To love to write? When did I let my brain convince my soul that English is boring and too hard, nobody likes the subject, its not a cool thing to enjoy, and there is no glory in consuming your life with play on words, exploration of others works, and the deciphering of what has been? To let your mind imagine to create, to explore, to wander and dream, and be what it wants to be, enjoying all that it finds appealing without second guessing the purpose behind it or the second opinions of the millions of people in this world? Being able to express feeling, complicated emotion, indescribable thoughts in a matter of only a few words is an art and task in and of itself! So much can be said in only two words yet we spend most our lives talking and talking, and texting and emailing or searching for what it is we cannot find, beating about the bush, wastefully using twenty when ten will do. Or even still, a lengthy explanation when a hug is all that’s needed. There is a reason when you attend a play or listen to a song, or read the Bible that the font arranged in that pattern on the paper strikes a nerve, encourages a tear, or unleashes laughter. What a beautiful thing!
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