Banned Books Week

I considered posting about one of the thousands of news articles today that got under my skin, however I figured I would post about banned books.

I fell in love with banned books when a certain high school teacher of mine taught a college level class where the only thing we read were banned books.  This ended up being my favorite class of my high school career.  My teacher is still to this day one of my favorites.  Passionate, articulate and ever probing deeper into our minds so that we could truly appreciate the literature in front of us while peppering each class with tidbits of her love for Mel Gibson (before he went crazy) and quoting things such as Martha Stewart ‘it’s a good thing’ before she went bad.  She is one of the people that when I go back to visit my high school I make it a point to go see her.  

I learned that people fear books.  Not the books themselves because it is foolish to be afraid of a book.  There are only 2 reasons to fear a book.  1.  You fear the wisdom or knowledge that book spreads or 2. You fear that the person wielding it is going to beat the utter hell out of you with it.

This was the beginning of my love affair with books.  As a kid I never really liked reading…but it was the idea that these books had something in them that people feared that drew me deeper into it.  Since then I have had a bit of a love affair with literature.  Remembering the first book I fell in love with, the first book that made me truly cry, the first book that scared the living SHIT out of me, and the first book that I truly felt enlightened after I finished it.  Each of these journeys I cherish deep in my heart and never want to let go.  It is reasons like this that not only should books not be banned but people should be encouraged to read things that will take them out of their everyday lives and thrust them into something different.  They should read things that interest them and even push themselves to read something they normally wouldn’t.  

And I’m not sure if you’re reading this right now and I certainly hope you are.  But you are an amazing educator and I wish you the best!

So, while you are off witch hunting I will be tending to the rabbits.  Make sure to pay attention when you drive and never forget your first raft ride down river with you good friend Jim.