From cradle to brave
Monday, May 3, 2010 at 02:44PM 
A few of my captives. Photo Jennifer Weber 2010I am always amazed at the bravery of children.
As a child I was not at all brave. In fact, I was afraid of the very thought of the whisper of the rumor of the arrival of the ghost of my own shadow.
I was scared of the dark; I was scared of crossing the street; I was scared of my stepfather; I was scared of my sister; I was scared of school; I was scared of fire drills; I was scared of rejection; I was scared of hunger; I was scared of poverty.
I was scared of being run over by a freight train and being decapitated and drowning in the ocean and being thrown from a moving automobile.
Or any one of the above.
I was scared of gym class and fractions and report card day and Communists.
Reading is a discipline.
I was scared of sudden violence and aching loneliness and dismal failure and grim death.
Come to think of it, I still cringe at some of those things. I won't say which.
The only thing that never made me afraid -- and that always assuaged my fear -- was reading books.
Epic novels, poetry books, short story books, how-to books, picture books, brief books, long books, easy books, hard books, serious books, goofy books, biographies, the encyclopedia … I forced them all to live with me.
Jane Eyre's integrity has inspired me throughout my life … as has Scarlett O'Hara's feistiness and Melanie Hamilton's goodness and Elizabeth Bennett's prejudice and Kira Argounova's loyalty.
I have modeled my own romantic passions after the desperate love of Rebecca DeWinter for Maxim, of Countess Olenska for Newland, of Cathy Linton for Heathcliff, of Scarlett for Ashley, of Dominique Francon for Howard Roark.
The poetry of Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and James Dickey and Theodore Roethke and W.H. Auden -- to name but a few -- has shaped my sensibilities in more ways than I could ever express.
When children -- and adults -- watch television, they become complacent.
With few exceptions, television is designed to denigrate rather than elevate the mind.
When we read a book -- even if it isn't classified as "great" literature and even if we don't fully understand all the words -- we become brave.
That's because reading is a discipline.
You gain a vision where there was none.
It requires courage to turn your back -- even for a few hours a day -- on TV, movies, games, handhelds, cell phones, iPods, and the Internet.
But if you turn toward books for those few hours a day, purposely turning everything else off and shutting everything else out, reading transforms you.
Books acquaint us with ideas. They put us on intimate terms with our beautiful language that lends life to those ideas.
Even if time allows only a sip here and there, every minute you turn to a book you become stronger, wiser, more imaginative, more intuitive, more analytical. Your ability to conceptualize increases. You gain a vision where there was none.
Nearly four decades ago my mother gave me a thin volume of verse by a relatively obscure Georgia poet. This morning I spent a half hour enjoying that book.
Here is one of the things I read, possibly for the hundredth time:
++++
When you and I have grown too old for loving
The first slow tide of dawn across the dark,
Too old to pause, bewildered, when a lark
Plunges its arrow of music where we are roving;
When the first rose of April fails to quicken
Our pulse and hold us speechless for a spell,
And we are tired, too tired to sit and tell
Love's words again, and watch the bright stars thicken, --
When comes that hour and the spirit sighs,
Though still we talk as one who understands,
Feel summer's sunlight and the winter's knife,
Ah, little do we know that all of life
Will lie upon a bier with folded hands
And silent lips, and pennies on its eyes.
++++
I rest my case.
Reader Comments (11)
A great post (as always) and a great case for the magic that is reading. As I've grown older, the amount of TV I watch has reduced drastically and the amount of time I spend reading has increased considerably. The number of good books are seemingly limitless; the number of good (i.e. worthwhile) TV shows is as limited as the number of speeches Obama has given sans teleprompter.
Awesome! Exactly how I feel. I think that's why I just can't watch a movie. Especially if it's based upon a book because I've usually read the book first and I've yet to see a movie that does justice to the book. Michael Lewis described Joe Theismann's broken leg so vividly in The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game that it brought that image to my mind while reading and I didn't have to see it, again, on the screen. :-)
Kev, thanks for the compliment ... I already had you pegged for a reader!
Lauri ... thanks for the compliment and for stopping by ... and I remember seeing Joe Theismann's leg GET broken in endless replay. Would love to read Lewis's description of it! I'll put that on my reading list!
Ahhhh! A fellow bookaholic! I remember as a kid getting shooed outside after "too much reading." I followed only the letter of the law, since I tucked the book in my waistband, climbed as high as possible in to "my" tree and sat swaying in the breeze - reading! I dare say reading has shaped my philosophies in more ways than I am even always cognizant of. I am so grateful to the truly great authors; and I humbly aspire to be one someday. You know, when I grow up. :)
When I was a kid I really wasn't scared of much, except maybe my daddy. The man was so strict and rigid and if you did not obey he had no problem using his belt as discipline. He was one of those people that you really could never please no matter what you did.
Other than than, ... ha
I loved reading and still do. I'm always disappointed when I see a movie made from a book, because the characters and landscapes never look the way my mind imagines them when I read the book.
Tracie, I've done my share of reading up in trees! But I must admit I was never told I'd read too much. I was told I was being lazy, lolling about reading all day, but that wasn't the same thing! And please include me in your list of those lucky readers who will receive an autographed copy of your first bestseller!
Debbie, I know from rigid discipline in parents! At our house the belt was the law and it came out at the first sign of perceived rebellion. I would rather have had it that way though, than to have had parents who were permissive. I guess it's a trade-off! I agree with you about movies made from books ... in almost every case, the book is better!
Great post! I will share with my son on why he should be reading more and watching TV less.
I was always a big reader when young. From kid level biographies about Jim Thorpe, Sammy Baugh and the (at that time contemporary) Johnny Unitas, Bart Starr, and Roger Staubach. I suppose I read all the Hardy Boy books that were printed before the 70s. Then science fiction entered my world and incredibly, Kurt Vonnegut. I also read about the failed revolutions of Czechoslovakia and Hungary, required reading for sixth graders which showed the Soviets for what they were, "The Coldest Winter in Peking" sas also very illuminating pieve on Mao I read in my early 20s. Today, I read history and scifi mostly. (currently reading "A Patriots History of the United States" which reads like a text book but is very interesting.)
If it's not news, documentaries, or a movie, I don't watch the tube.
Again, I appreciate your thoughtful post on reading. thanks
I enjoyed reading your post, thought provoking and I enjoyed reading the verse.
Thank you for the vote of confidence. Sometimes I go in bookstores or libraries and get an overwhelming feeling that someday my book will be there.
Oh, and to you and Debbie, you know what they say... "Don't judge a book by its movie!"
Reiuxcat, sounds as though you have some interesting tastes in books! I too love a well-done documentary and I love movies too. And if you can convince your son to read more and watch TV less because of something I said, I would consider that a day's work well done! Thanks for stopping by.
Admin Girl, thank you so much. Please come again!
Tracie, I have no doubt. And I like movies from books too ... there are some really good ones! Where would we be without Gone With The Wind ... the book AND the movie?
My son is doing better. For one thing, a low grade on math got him a ban on tv which has yet to be recinded. Plus, I've been experimenting with different types of books. For instance, he'll read a Star Wars book, especially if it involves Darth Vader/Anikin or Boba Fett (no, he didn't really die when he fell in the sarlacc pit) and he likes the Shel Silverstein poetry books. Plus he'll thumb through National Geographic to read what he likes and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department magazine. And if it has to do with reptiles or sea creatures, he's on that too.
It's just that reading is not the first thing he thinks about when he looks for something to do. Conversly, I can get so consumed by a book, I'll be reading it every chance I get until it's done.
Thanks for the encouragement. :-)