May 28, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Wednesday, May 28.
In my old age, I’ve returned to two practices that were important parts of my early life - reading and memorization.
I don’t remember being read to sleep at night, but I remember always taking a book to bed. As a kid, reading was like breathing - not something you chose to do, but something you couldn’t live without. Books were a window into other places, other people, other lives. I loved books.
Memorization wasn’t something I loved, like reading. But it was something that all my teachers - at school and at Sunday School - felt was essential to my education. They saw it as a tool to train the mind. Somewhere along the way, memorization - rote learning - fell out of practice, and I believe students are the worse for it.
Over the course of my life, busy with building a career and raising a family, I left these first two loves. I continued to read, but it most often was for work, and felt like work. The same was true for memorization. Adults have a way, sometimes, of draining all the enjoyment out of childhood pursuits. But I’m thankful now to have the time, and the renewed desire, to return to these childish things.
I don’t remember the first book I read, but I remember the first thing I memorized. It started out with these words - “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” And today, I can still recite it, without thinking, like breathing. I wager that you can, too. Go ahead.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
