What does a good story, and a passionate kiss with someone you love, have in common?
A moment. A moment where nothing else but you feeling every sense of that moment there and then. The world disappears as you fly away into a wonder-lust of emotion.
This evening I was in a room with a hundred people, and in just a few spoken words they all vanished. It was just me, listening to the heartache and sorrow of a story that was told with such rawness, and such passion, that I was immersed in every, single, spoken word.
The physical environment which I was in was in fact a dinner, a welcome dinner for the children's authors who are taking part at the Bendigo Writers Festival.
And the star of the evening, was the Australian National Children's Laureate for 2014 and 2015, Jackie French.
Ms French told a personal story that I truly believe, will stay with me forever. It doesn't seem fair to re-tell even parts of the story she shared, as I wouldn't do it justice, and it's not my story to tell.
What I will do however, is share with you three things that Ms French said tonight about the value of books, and more importantly reading, for children.
Not only did they resonate with me, they have inspired me, and ignited a spark so bright that I feel if you could see my heart, it would be shining so remarkably that it would light up the southern hemisphere so greatly, that night, would turn to day.
"When something is written down, it never dies. The author always lives.
"Even when books have been put away and stored up for years, even a hundred years, when you have that book, the ideas still exist, they are still real.
"There is nothing as powerful as a book. We can give kids love, we can give them food. Even without these things, if you give a child a book, you give them dreams that are within reach."
said Ms French.
No comments:
Post a Comment