And That Has Made All The Difference

A student recently asked the class if a book had ever changed their lives. Since reading is neither a strong suit nor a popular pastime of the college demographic, many students seemed puzzled by his question. Some disagreed with the notion that something as basic as a book could be life changing. But a few of us, a precious few, knew just what he was asking. Heads nodded enthusiastically, and the literature in our veins spilled out in excited babble. Has a book ever changed my life? Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. Changed my life, added to my life, saved my life, made my life better, bearable, bittersweet. Harper Lee taught me what being brave in the face of inexcusable ignorance looks like. J.D. Salinger gave voice and meaning to my pain and angst. Kurt Vonnegut showed me truth in absurdity. Elie Weisel broke my heart, pierced my soul, and made redemption real. I even belong to a reject-consumerism group that has “W.W.C.I.D.” (“What would Caroline Ingalls do?") as a mantra. But perhaps I was most affected by a slim volume easily read in one sitting. Antoine de Saint-Exupery was not even forty when he put pen to paper and created the profound work of self-discovery The Little Prince. It is so physically insubstantial, one could never guess its philosophic weight. But it should always be read by everyone. I chose Counting With The Little Prince for Scarlett because I couldn’t bear for them to be strangers any longer.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Counting-Little-Prince-De-Saint-Exupery/book/0152

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint-Exup%C3%A9ry

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/