I'd probably be a bookworm. I just really like books. I would quote nursery rhymes to anyone who would listen even before anyone beside my mother could tell what I was trying to say. Almost every night I would plead with my mom, "Read just one more chapter, please!?" When I was in elementary school I would get the teacher to let me stay inside and read Laura Ingles Wilder instead of going outside with the other kids at recess. I'd bring books to my brother's ball games and music lessons. One summer our public library had a promotion where they gave away your choice of a brand new book for every three that you read from the library. I filled one shelf on my book shelf that summer. On my stack of books sitting atop my high school desk, I always kept at least one novel. And beside my college bunk bed I always had one work of fiction in between the theories of counseling and public policy books.
"Flowers for Algernon" "The Outsiders" "The Poisonwood Bible" "Frankenstein" and "Jane Eyre." These beloved stories stayed with me long after I turned the last page and I believe that though fiction, they taught me a lot of truth.
Last Sunday our pastor quoted John Wesley saying that he thought we as Christian should read for at least 5 hours a day. While I don't think I know one person who actually does this, I do know lots of people who read. Who like to read. Who love to learn and be challenged and to imagine. I know a lot of bookworms. And you know that certain familiarity when you come across another lover of books. You have that instant connection and common understanding. I've discussed "the Good Earth" with strangers at the airport, "Memoirs of a Geisha" and "The Known World" with psychiatrists at work, "The Weight of Water" with my doctor, and "We Were the Mulvaneys" with my father-in-law. Strangers can become like family through a few common pages.
Novels have broadened my understanding of places I have been. I have read "The Brothers Karamazov" in Moscow and "Cry, the Beloved Country" in Johannesburg, and "The Secret Life of Bees" in South Carolina. They have also helped me explore places that I probably won't ever get to visit. "The Bean Trees" in the Southwest, "The Shipping News" set in Newfoundland, "The Book of Ruth" in rural Iowa and "Rise and Shine" set partially in Jamaica.
Perhaps the greatest reason that I hold novels close to my heart is their ability to show me what it's like to walk in another person's shoes. I'm more compassionate when I read, live, and think what those characters do. I'll never get to be a black man condemned to die, but through "A Lesson Before Dying,"...almost. I'll never be a soldier but I can think like one in "All Quiet on the Western Front." I've never been a run-away slave, but I can feel a little bit of the pain and beauty in "The Color Purple."
And as a social worker, empathy and compassion are job requirements. If I go into work each day with my heart and mind closed, I burn out before the breakfast trays arrive. But through the volumes of "One Few Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "I Know This Much Is True," "The Sound and the Fury," "The Bell Jar," and "Girl, Interrupted," I have a broader understanding of what it MIGHT be like to live with mental illness.
I could probably write more, but the sun is shining, the breeze is gently blowing, I just made a pitcher of iced tea, and "The Known World" is calling my name...
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