Thought Process

I always find it mystifying when I encounter programs designed to get kids interested in reading. I used to get in trouble all the time for having a book open on my lap in math class. I read by flashlight, by car-dome light, by the weak light that filters into the hallway from the bathroom when bedroom lights have to be turned off. I have an addiction for the written word that impacts every facet of my life, and, in a pinch, I will read just about anything. But there are a handful of writings that have so profoundly affected me, I feel they are part of me. One of the most referenced stories in my personal library is Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron”--the tale of a future world where everyone is equal because all the gifted and talented people have been saddled with state-required handicaps to offset their superiority. I read it for the first time as a teenager, and have read it many times since, always with the same effect--a shudder of dread. The worst handicap, in my opinion for obvious reasons, is not sandbags tied to great dancers or hideous masks on the beautiful, but loud, train-of-thought-jarring noises in the earpieces of the intelligent making a coherent thought impossible. Terrifying. Descartes had it right and I’ll add a bit with poetic license: I think, therefore life has meaning. In Dr. Seuss’ inspiring Oh, the Thinks you can Think!, I find the antidote to Vonnegut’s bleak future. I think.

http://www.amazon.com/Thinks-Think-Bright-Early-Board/dp/037585794X

http://www.catinthehat.org/