This is a repeat, but can't say "Thank You" enough to my darling Momma who taught me to love words. Everything else comes from that joyous sharing of story.
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| Momma, me, my brother, and my sister--Lovers of Words and Reading |
My
Momma Had Words with Me
I
don’t know if it’s true anywhere else, but in the South, to “have words with”
someone means to fuss, argue, or reprimand. My momma had another purpose for
having words with me, for me, and around me. We didn’t discuss why people read or why it was
important. My siblings and I just read. The power, magic, and glory of words
surrounded us. No lectures were needed. No punishment was forthcoming to make
us read. It was second nature to read. After all, our parents read in front of
us every day. Momma focused on fiction while Daddy read the newspaper,
biographies, and his professional journals.
So, it was all
Momma’s fault that my father-in-law was shocked when my daddy built bookshelves
that covered half the walls in our study from the floor to ten-foot ceiling.
With wide eyes, he said, “No one has that many books!”
My
husband shrugged. “She does. Everyone in her family does.” He knew there would
be no wasted space in our study.
It
was Momma’s fault that we take delight in words. She gave us no choice in the
matter. From the time we were toddlers, we all had library cards and joined the
summer reading program at the regional library branch in our home town. Every
week, we checked out five books.
All the librarians knew us by name.
How do you feed a
growing reading habit? Momma knew. She made sure there were books to read that
challenged us. She made reading more books fun and expected. When our abilities
to read outstripped our ages and we needed bigger, more complex books, Momma
checked out adult books for us on her own library card. As the school librarian
at my elementary school, she found harder and harder books for me to read when I
had read everything at the lower levels. I clearly remember reading Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson in the
fifth grade. It was my first adult novel and I’ll never forget holding the
large book and being carried away into the Southwest by the words.
In time, my siblings
and I found our own preferred genres. When given a list of three hundred books
for college-bound students in the 1960’s, we attacked it from different angles.
The fact that the complete works of Shakespeare and the great Greek historians
were available in our home, made it easy to get started. My sister loves
literature. My brother has a taste for biography, science, history, and true
life adventure books. I read history, fiction of all types, and poetry.
As
voracious readers, we are the people who keep bookstores—large, small and
online—in business. We are the people who always have up-to-date library cards.
Our to-be-read lists of new books and old favorites are extensive. None of us
is bored as long as there is something to read. And that isn’t likely to happen
if we live a thousand years.
It’s
Momma’s fault that there is a longstanding family joke about the end of
civilization. If an asteroid or other near extinction event occurred, our
combined libraries would form the basis for restarting science, math, history,
and literature. We could quickly raise man’s knowledge back to its former
heights.
The
majesty and beauty of the words I grew up with created the desire to shape and
form my own stories, to create new adventures, new people to meet, and new
places to go. Momma encouraged me. She kept the poetry I wrote as an eight
years old. Her simple acceptance made no obstacle insurmountable. Her faith
that I could do anything I wanted allowed me to experiment and try different
styles. She not only taught me to love words, but the persistence it takes to
shape, order, and arrange them in coherent ways. When she gave me the love of
words, she gave me the tools to accomplish what I desired to do. She gave me the
ability to tell stories that soothe hurts, inspire challenges, and entertain.
My mother gave me life—physically, mentally, and emotionally. She gave me
dreams and encouraged me to strive to reach for them. My mother gave me words
to share and the persistence to achieve the dream of being a writer. She still
encourages me to write and inspires me with her own voracious reading.
Thank
you, Momma, for having words with me. I love you.
