Literacy: The Vehicle for Hope

It is a treasure.  It is the tie that binds us to people long ago and the avenue through which we are connected to a world beyond the walls of our existence.  It teaches us…guides us…speaks to the innermost places in our souls where no person has access.  It takes us to new places, just beyond our reach, where our highest thoughts and aspirations exist and abide patiently, longing to be embraced.

The written word.

We read history…mistakes and victories retold…and we glean from the men and women who went before us.  We read poetry…literary beauty…and the carefully chosen words inspire and heal.  We read about science and nature…and we blossom as the order and artistry of the world unfold before our eyes.  We read fiction…classic literature that has been re-told for generations…and we connect with a hero or heroine and are transformed.

Stories, true and untrue, when told by passionate authors, infuse hope.

Hope.  Hope is the adversary of all that seeks to destroy us.  The depression of our spirit.  The trodden down soul.  Hope looks our transgressors in the face and tells the story of a greater existence.

The infusion of hope by the power of literacy is a gift for all people everywhere.  Not only is there ethereal greatness in the power of a story, there exists a true deliverance that can forcibly change the course of a life.

There exists, in today’s world, places on the planet where education takes place in a world void of literature.  Eager minds being taught amidst empty bookshelves.  Children learning without the gift of a printed page.  The very core of education remains absent as the torch of generational poverty is handed from mother to child.

A passion for literacy stems from a passion for a world with hope.  A world where no child is denied a book.  A world where every mind is worth educating.  A world where those of us who have been changed by literacy stand up and refuse to accept the paradox.  A world where a child reads a story…grows up to tell his own story…and carries the torch of hope to the next generation.

And so it is…the essence of the written word, having freed one soul…frees thousands.