July 28, 2010 @ 9:28 am
The Book of Me…
Baltimore Reads, Inc., Baltimore, MD (37)
According to my trusty pal Pete (you remember, the GPS system) we were almost three hours from the next stop of Baltimore. No worries as our car was great, the drive looked relatively simple, and my mom was along for the ride. A couple of hours passed and no trouble. We’d chatted, Pete veered us around this curve than that one, and then suddenly, our wheels slowed. I wasn’t so nervous at first. After all, despite the terrible northeast traffic we’ve all heard about, things had been pretty great. Honestly, I was kind of starting to chuckle at the horrific stories you always hear about on the news. And I mean, things were going quite wonderfully…..until I looked over and yelled, “Holy s***, there’s the Washington Monument.” Pete, What.Has.Happened? Now, to be fair, the signs declaring that indeed “Downtown Washington” was in our midst, had been abundant. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’d seen at least four or five of them in a two-mile radius (as had my mom, I later found out) but I never, ever considered Pete would attempt to take me through DC. So I dismissed the signs as, I don’t know, decorations maybe.?.? I mean I thought we’d all established my lack of driving skills, even Pete. Clearly not the case. So as we passed Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, the National Cathedral and the gosh dern Pentagon, I pretty much considered myself a goner. I was breathing hard, then harder, my knees were shaking, and a thin layer of perspiration had set up camp just above my right brow. Literally, I counted the seconds as I made my way along crowded streets, around bicyclists who clearly consider themselves to be various forms of Lance Armstrong, and through roundabout after roundabout. My stomach was in knots, my head was pulsating and my body was absolutely exhausted, but finally, somehow, DC was literally behind us. And I have to say, of my experiences thus far in life, I’m most proud of this accomplishment…not when Hattan or Aston finally became potty trained, not of Graduation Day at Transy, and not of the interview that secured my first job…but this day, proves to be of what I am most proud.
I guess I should have mentioned as to how I came about this drive to Baltimore and exactly what I would be doing for this particular purpose. My third grade year of school remains to be lost in a haze of babysitters…Stacey, Dawn, Kristy, Mary Anne and countless others introduced me to the great love that is reading. While I’d been read to all my life (and with my mom being a sixth grade reading teacher), it wasn’t until I became a part of the acclaimed babysitters club that I truly fell in love books. In recent years, my reading has unfortunately somewhat dwindled, however, my love of books has not. So obviously, a book bank would definitely be in the near future.
Baltimore Reads, Inc. is an organization that focuses on eliminating illiteracy among adults. They teach classes and counsel students on the reading skills needed to work in society. In addition, they’ve created a book bank that collects books to distribute to local schools, clinics and families…an incredibly important task as it has been determined that those who grow up surrounded by books are more likely to stay in school longer, as well as more easily decide what types of careers into which they want to eventually enter. Thus far, 1.3 million books have been provided for teachers and disadvantaged families throughout the Baltimore area. While we weren’t exactly certain as to how we would help our fellow book lovers, we were tremendously excited.
Introducing ourselves, and making our way into the building, we found shelves beyond shelves with books lined from end to end. The sections were titled…“Young Adult,” “Fiction,” “Mystery” and so on, and the authors were alphabetized…Blume, Cleary, Paulsen and Tolkien. Walking through the aisles, I caught a glimpse of The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Maniac Magee and books from the Berenstain Bears series, and yet again, my childhood was but steps away. Unfortunately I had to focus as there was much to do.
We’d begun the day sorting through the donated books, and then worked on labeling them with stickers assuring all that “Baltimore Reads.” Working through classic novels, Disney books and bedtime stories, the boxes full of new additions slowly slimmed down as we made room on the already stuffed shelves. Every now and then, I’d open the front cover of something familiar and read slowly, remembering whatever memories immediately came to mind, whatever memories the words once helped me create. These words had rocked children to sleep, calmed us as we paced slowly in hospital waiting rooms, and shared their adventures as we sat curled in front of a fire as the snow stuck easily to the panes of our windows. The smells of cracked papers thickened as each page became the next, and though some of the books were older, even a bit musty, the lingering scents made their uncertain histories even more endearing. I wondered what child had learned to read from the pages before us, what parent had sounded out the difficult spellings of “rhinoceros” or “geography.”
And, as I moved my fingers along the edge of each book, I realized that at one point or another, I’d said goodnight to the mouse, the house and the moon…I’d sailed the treacherous seas as a wild thing…I’d fought yellow-spotted lizards and rattlesnakes while melting away in a sun that seemed only feet from my face…and I, along with Holden Caulfield, had decided that indeed, most people are complete morons, myself included.
Each time, I realized books allow us to experience opportunities we may have never thought possible. They open our eyes, our ears, our hearts to the different, the exciting, the previously unexamined worlds we all yearn to one day see. They introduce us to new people with quirky personalities, wild imaginations and extraordinary gifts they’ll hopefully share with us all. Books teach us to dream about the lives we hope to lead. The pages turning, the stories told, we take small steps walking in another’s shoes, and we read the words that provide us the strength to one day change our world, along with the world of so many others.
