Reading For All It's Worth

Think back with me for a few minutes. Go back to your first day in grade one. I know, schools out and you don’t want to go back until September but just humour me for a little while. Okay, here we are in grade one. The teacher hands out our first reader. In actual fact some of us will remember the book and can visualize it because right on the front cover is those very words, “First Reader.”
Now to the good part. Remember the first few lines and the first few pages. Help me here. I remember, “See Spot. See Spot run. Run Spot, run.” I can also vaguely remember the name of the girl. Her name was . . . Sally. Now you will have to tell me, what was the boy’s name?
I spoke at Macassa Lodge in Hamilton on Sunday. It was a great time. During our time together I said something that caught my granddaughters’ attention. With those few words, she was off and looking in her bible for a verse, she had heard at her church that morning. When she found it, she wanted to read it for everyone. Not bad for an eight-year-old.
We have another grand daughter who is just going into grade one. If we were to hand her our first reader, she would be bored. She is so far past that, it scares me to think how advanced this new generation will be when they graduate from university.
Our journey into the realm of reading has gone forward. We are beyond those early years, our reading has not only grown but changed. English class in those school years introduced us to many different styles of writing and different areas like, fiction and history and spirituality to name a few. Each has its good point and each in some way allow us to see things in our world that we don’t normally see or experience. Unfortunately, they tell us that more than 90 percent of the adult population does not read one book cover to cover after graduation from grade twelve. This probably due to television.
So how can we all read today. I believe we read through life experiences. Most of us have inquisitive minds. Those minds look for ways to learn. At times the learning involves reading people. You see someone do something and you say to yourself, “I can do that” A number of years ago I purchased an Austin Healey. A wonderful car and I enjoyed it for a number of months. Yes, you read that right, months. Someone had more money then they needed and the offer was too good to resist. Anyway, the fellow I bought it from was a doctor and he went to school to learn welding and bodywork so he could do the car himself. Great jobs. From the other direction, we learn from others mistakes. Like my father said, “Learn from my mistakes because you will not live long enough to make them all yourself.”
In Psalm 19 we read these words, “The heavens declare the glory of God . . . Day unto day utters speech . . . There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.” The question is, can we read it? God is writing all about himself in nature and in our lives.
There are two other non written ways of learning to read. One is listening to others. We read their lives and hearts as they share their deepest thoughts and secrets. Just an aside to this, did you know that one of the greats gifts you can give someone is to keep their secrets. The other gift is to imitate them. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery. You do the same to them. Somewhere out there someone is looking at you and your life and looking up to you. All because you let them read you. Keep up the great writing, we are reading.
Rob