In my line of work, I get to do a lot of reading. Headline News!
It sort of goes with the territory.Headline News!
I sometimes fret over the future of reading and writing. We're all so busy tapping out tiny bites of information on our phones, I wonder if people still take the time to do what I call "formal writing."Headline News!
I have a tendency to be a bit stodgy when it comes to this craft. Even my emails can be a bit formal.
It's just the way I've always done it.
When I speak to young people, I tell them that I've never met anyone who could write even a little bit who was not something else. That would be a voracious reader.
I tell them to consider it like their email service. Reading is the "inbox," where you take in all that information. Writing is the "outbox," where you regurgitate some of those thoughts on paper, or your laptop, or your phone.
Then I tell them exactly how old I am.
I ask them if any of them know - or perhaps even have - a Slinky? Yes, those coiled wires - which happen to hail from right here in Delco, in Clifton Heights of all places - also can explain this rhythm of reading and writing.
Hold the Slinky in one hand and then let it slide over to the other hand. Reading and Writing. Get it?
So yes, I do a lot of reading - and a fair amount of writing - in the course of a day.
But I've never read anything as important as the piece I read this weekend.
It's been awhile.
But I rediscovered the magic of "The Little Engine That Could." The focus of this classic tale was my grandsons, Dylan and Sam.
The power of reading - out loud - to a squirming baby is magical.
Both of them seemed rapt by the words I was reading. They looked at me and the images on the page.
I hope they grow up to be voracious readers as well.
I'm hoping to do my part by reading to them every chance I get.
Comments