Literate for a Day
Someone or something you can’t communicate with through writing (a baby, a pet, an object) can understand every single word you write today, for one day only. What do you tell them?
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“I love you. I will always love you.
“Read everything today that you can get your hands on. Read the Bible. Read the newspaper. Read every book on the shelves in our house. Read labels on cans and boxes. Read the funnies. Read the back of the cereal box.
“Read every bit of print I put in front of you today, and memorize this:
“To read is to grow. It is to understand. It is to learn. It is to travel around the world and into outer space. It is the key that unlocks everything.
“Always enjoy the gift of knowing how to read. Not everyone is so blessed.”
Just Writing! 
I like your words to the baby.
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I may have told you this before, but your post reminded me of when my daughter was in the backseat of my car reading aloud every sign we passed. After awhile she asked, “Mom, now that I can read, do I have to read everything?” Gotta’ love a sweet kid who wanted to make sure she fulfilled her obligation to the privilege of reading.
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I think I remember your saying that she was quite a precocious reader. This is a great story 🙂
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Beautiful! So true and precious. I really wish my nieces and nephew would read more. They don’t understand they are missing out but as their parents aren’t readers it’s hard to encourage it (but I do try). 🙂
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You never know what your influence will produce later on.
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Since I’m inclined to analyze everything, I’ll throw another angle in here. Reading is important. I have a cousin who can barely read. Any kind of contract, bank statement, receipt from Walmart, or sheet of info from the Govt mystifies her. So I’ve seen how, in our society, people who can’t read are definitely handicapped.
But society existed before books. Though there was a lot of ignorance and superstition, people did grow, they understood, some traveled around, went on long pilgrimages. The Vikings sailed, the Normans invaded England, Marco Polo explored the Orient.
Reading informs the mind, clarifies facts, and fuels the imagination — but the mind was there first. Societies that didn’t have books still had minds; sometimes we forget that when we think of “primitive” peoples.
Reading can also confuse the mind; I wonder if there isn’t a lot of prejudice and superstition in our day, too. We too readily accept rumors and hearsay. I love that old quote, “The purpose of opening the mind, as with opening the mouth, is to close it again on something solid.”
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In early history, story was the way history was preserved. There were people who traveled all around just telling stories. It was history, entertainment, education, and sometimes tragedy or comedy. The art of storytelling has suffered since the printed page became so available, and that is one reason, as an English teacher, I encouraged the reading of the ancient stories like Beowulf and the Illiad and Odyssey. And of course the Bible is one of the most ancient books of all, recording history that is constantly being validated by archeology.
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