One of the upsides of the pandemic is that many people rediscovered the joy of reading. Long before I was able to travel, reading transported me to places I would never be able to go. I could visit ancient Greece and be launched into the future with Buck Rogers on the same day. While Jim Stafford was talking about something else in his song "Wildwood Weed," he could have been referring to the power of reading when he said, "You can take a trip and never leave the farm." The following quote from Anne Lamott sums it up perfectly for me.
"If you love to read, or learn to love reading, you will have an amazing life. Period. Life will always have hardships, pressure, and incredibly annoying people, but books will make it all worthwhile. In books, you will find your North Star, and you will find you, which is why you are here.
Books are paper ships, to all the worlds, to ancient Egypt, outer space, eternity, into the childhood of your favorite musician, and — the most precious stunning journey of all — into your own heart, your own family, your own history and future and body.
Out of these flat almost two-dimensional boxes of paper will spring mountains, lions, concerts, galaxies, heroes. You will meet people who have been all but destroyed, who have risen up and will bring you with them. Books and stories are medicine, plaster casts for broken lives and hearts, slings for weakened spirits. And in reading, you will laugh harder than you ever imagined laughing, and this will be magic, heaven, and salvation. I promise."
- Anne Lamott - A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader
