7 March 2013 –
In an article yesterday on Newsmax.com, Todd Beamon
commented on a new book by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush entitled “Immigration
Wars.” The book states Governor Bush’s
newly refined position on comprehensive immigration reform (More on that
tomorrow after I finish reading the book).
I want that book, I told myself during the night! This morning, I bought the book. No big deal, heh? Yeah, it is.
A really big deal.
I joined the 21st century a while ago when I
was given a Kindle as a present. I
treated the device as I would treat a gift of bright yellow socks and put it safely
away. Why? Because I love the heft and the commitment to
real books. To have books is to be
well-read. To be well-read is to
approach wisdom. To be wise is to…well,
someday, maybe. Anyway, with boxes of
books in our attic, and bookshelves awaiting their careful arrangment according
to my own version of the Dewey Decimal System, I can show my worth as a human
being. Thankfully, because the gift was
lovingly and wisely given, I finally pulled out the Kindle and turned it
on. Words appeared; laying it aside
became difficult. I got used to the
format, then I embraced the electronically-displayed words as I had done for so
many years the creaking of new bindings and the rustle of turning the pages as the
traditional sounds of knowledge. What a
magnificent advancement of the human condition!
Then, after I temporarily misplaced the Kindle in a rental car far from
home, we HAD to replace it. We bought a
Kindle Fire. To my wonder, Amazon
actually downloaded the books to my Kindle Fire that I had ordered and read on
the Kindle. Hallelujah! It was as if pagan marauders had burned my
library and then Heaven had restored it intact
to my temple of learning. I could still
read and reference!
Back to this morning.
After rereading the article, I got up from my laptop, walked down to the
swimming pool, and turned on my Kindle Fire.
My hotel room here in Kinshasa has a cable connection to the internet—a
shaky connection on a good day—but the pool and restaurant area has wi-fi! I sat in the shade of a cabana, where I knew
I had a chance to get the signal—even more shaky than the cable connection—and
downloaded the book. It took four attempts to get the wi-fi signal and about
eight minutes to download the book. But,
four degrees south of the equator, in central Africa, in one of the most
dysfunctional cities on earth, behind protective walls and armed guards, I
bought a book. What is just as
remarkable, we will pay the credit card bill from our home in the United
States. To quote a goddess: “I love
livin’ now!”
I often think what my life would have been as a
grade-schooler if I had had such a capability.
Mrs. Robinson, my third-grade teacher, would not have had to put my desk
right in front of hers in order to control me with the rap of a yardstick. Mrs. Holt, my fifth-grade teacher, would not
have had to put my desk in the coat room with a pile of assignments on it in
order to keep peace in her classroom.
All they would have had to do was let me read my Kindle Fire all day
long. A pox on the video games,
texting, and twitters that stultify our youth in the Information Age. I would have had an entire library in my
pocket! So many books; so little
time.
For those of you who know the story: Laman and Lemuel were probably illiterate. Nephi could read.
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