Day 22 of Giving Thanks

Day 22

I am very thankful for the ability to read. Some of you know snippets from my life, but only a rare few know how traumatic my life was as a child, a teen, & a young adult. Reading was my sanctuary.

My natural mother taught me to read. She used to tell me that books & magazines will take me to places I’ve never been, both real & imagined. She was right, but to what scale she could never imagine. . . 

When I was being hit, I could become Ali Baba & imagine cutting the head off my assailant. When I was grounded to my room sometimes for a month or more, I could live on the farm with Wilbur & Charlotte.

Then, there was the glorious time in 3rd grade when I met J.R.R. Tolkien!!!! Instead of being at school where I was spit upon, had my hair pulled, & called names I could go to Middle Earth, have tea with Bilbo, practice witchcraft with Gandalf, & pray for an eternal & intense love from a fairy. I could also pretend that the sexual abuse wasn’t happening because my imagination was so grandiose. 

Around the 4th grade I started reading True Crime & Stephen King. As I entered the hormonal stages of life, I was drawn to the darkness, like VC. Andrews. I identified with the children in the Flowers in the Attic Saga, you know, having grownups lock you away because you were a stain on the family (prolly why I love harry Potter so much).

I was never into the princess-type books because I never had anyone whisk me away that didn’t have ulterior motives, & I knew that they didn’t live happily ever after. I knew that kissing a woman without her consent was wrong because it had been done to me. Kiss my ass Snow White & Cinderella! I dug chicas like Mulan, Norma Rae, Margaret Thatcher, Mia Angelo, & many others.

I don’t read nearly as much these days, not because I don’t like to read, but because I don’t HAVE to read. I am happy with my life, now, so I’m enjoying living it.