Dec 17, 2023·edited Dec 17, 2023Liked by Joshua P. Hill
This is beautiful, and I could go on all day about the damages of cue based reading as described in "Sold a Story" and how it is teaching kids something but that something isn't reading and kicking the can down the road by passing kids through grades without addressing it is impacting their lives in terrible ways for all of us. I know that's not the point you're making but it's painful to someone who has been saved by reading as a child to try to imagine what I would have felt without that ability to escape my reality. I carpool for a mom finishing her BSN and her son told me he hates reading, and he's only ever read one book that wasn't assigned to him. He's almost 13. He's a beautiful, kind, intelligent kid and he has smart parents but they haven't been able to fix this, they don't know how or where to go. How will this child be able to develop critical thinking skills and learn anything well when he's almost to high school and functionally illiterate? (This might be the longest run-on sentence in a lifetime of lengthy tangents, sorry 🖤)
I really hope someone can show the kid the magic that lies in books. I really really enjoyed reading when I was young, I had a similar story to Josh, minus the relative who helped me read faster. I could read at young age, but I never did really pick up the pace. I have ADHD, it makes it difficult, I have to reread whole pages. But I still escaped into the wonder of books. And as I got older, it was non fiction that grabbed me more.
But as a kid who didn't have rich pArents, the Library was the shit! Loved that place, movies, books , music, a big wonderful world of stories art just a full on escape, from the shitty things at home. Later came video games and drugs as escapes. But in the beginning the books were the movies, were the drugs, were the video games. I have and always will always have a deep love for books... Hell book memes even are funny AF
Yes it can be, but I also think the kind of excessive amount of fiction reading I did as a child and continue to do is a big part of why I'm really firm in my progressive beliefs and hate injustice on the visceral level I think most thoughtful people do. Reading fiction is like getting to inhabit another person's life and viewing the world through the perspective of someone different from you is an important part of empathy. I am certain empathy and altruism exist even in places where the population hasn't got access to education or books. But I think it's more likely to be shared amongst the group the individual is in more and with strangers less. Empathy reduces fear and increases feeling connected to people you don't have the same background or culture at large in common with. It's something I just think helped and it fits if you reverse it decently but I could be totally wrong about it for anyone else.
This literary piece hits deep. Thank you for taking us back to those pivotal moments of your childhood. Sometimes we must recognize our present state and travel back in time to understand the meaning of our actions. Thanks again for putting perspective into your passion and drive!
"Reality is mundane when you’re told in so many ways that you can be anything, do anything, that life is supposed to be something grand and wonderful, while your actual experience each day is constituted by math homework and soccer practice."
This is a vivid encapsulation of the drudgery of youth. Extrinsically framed proclamations to keep young people in line. A great reminder that any liberation movement must take seriously youth liberation.
----
"I want to be realistic and pragmatic and I want to change the world much more than I want catharsis. Or rather I have always wanted real change, but in years past I was impatient and naïve, blissfully so at times. Now I have a patience that has come largely from being thwarted, from being wrong about how the world works. There are, of course, moments of rupture, but underneath nearly all of them are years of planning and coordination and nurturing seeds of transformation."
This is really lovely. Nothing seems adequate to the moment when genocide is ongoing, covid is continuing to spread without any real efforts to protect anyone and immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and poor people are under attack.
I struggle with how little I can do. With stage IV duodenal cancer on palliative chemo right now most of my efforts are involved in ensuring my husband and animals will be okay when I'm gone but I'd also like to be sure my life counts for something.
Your life matters because if you were as kind and eloquent even 1/100 of it as you are in this comment then that kindness went out in the world with you and dispersed to others to pass it on, pay it forward. That inner generosity that gets the sudden nudge to act with compassion even though it's harder, it has to come from somewhere. And now I know that sometimes it's coming from you. It will remain always.
wow Robin, thank you for your honesty -- and if it means anything I will say that every word, post, comment, thought really can do something these days.... sharing your voice makes people feel less alone, feel like they're listened to. You still have something to contribute because obviously you're right here. Blessings to you and yours this holiday season
Hi Joshua -- thank you again for an excellent, heartfelt essay. This resonates deeply for me especially as a poet and fellow fantasy-lover. "nothing worth having comes easy": work and time and years of exploration are best, within ourselves and with each other. I do feel fortified, because I know that my voice isn't alone. peace
What a lovely piece! It feels like every day is a battle to stay present, but the more I do the more I enjoy life. It would be a lie to say I no longer plan ahead-- but I live much more in the moment now. I hope to keep chugging along and get to the right place in my community eventually.
Excellent lifelong learning story. My brilliant father used to say, Student for Life! I respect your dedication to important causes close to your heart and all the energy spent trying to make the world a better place. I too try to do my bit. There is great book you should read if you haven't already. Gandhi is a personal hero with his militant civil disobedience to fight for social justice and his Satyagraha aka Truth Force philosophy, which is a mix of religions East and West, philosophies and contemporary writers around his time like Tolstoy. Erik Ericsson, the famous child psychologist did a in depth study biography of Gandhi called Gandhi's Truth, and actually went to India to those still alive who were close to him to get a full and honest picture of this icon of history who refused to kill but fought using his and others followers bodies in civil disobedience acts to awaken the moral conscience of his opponents or what later disciple Martin Luther King called moral mental jujitsu. It's a must read for anyone who wants to make the world a better place without resorting to violence or killing. Keep up the great work!
I think we all have to find the patience to slow down and sound things out, from time to time. It is such a difficult road, trying to rebuild and start afresh, and as you point out, everything feels so urgent. I very much sympathise with your seven year old self in that regard!
Thank you so much Joshua about sharing your personal struggles with reading...as someone who only recently "relearned" how to read (at age 52!) I think there is so much shame that halts people, freezes us in shame. Hearing that others struggle is a BIG deal.
And the focus onto thinking long term, of seeing ourselves as connected to both the past & the future- yes, we need this as an antidote to our impatient culture.
"I slip into fantasy, into escape and numbness from time to time, but today I crave intimate contact with reality. I want to be realistic and pragmatic and I want to change the world much more than I want catharsis. Or rather I have always wanted real change, but in years past I was impatient and naïve, blissfully so at times. Now I have a patience that has come largely from being thwarted, from being wrong about how the world works. There are, of course, moments of rupture, but underneath nearly all of them are years of planning and coordination and nurturing seeds of transformation."
This is beautiful, and I could go on all day about the damages of cue based reading as described in "Sold a Story" and how it is teaching kids something but that something isn't reading and kicking the can down the road by passing kids through grades without addressing it is impacting their lives in terrible ways for all of us. I know that's not the point you're making but it's painful to someone who has been saved by reading as a child to try to imagine what I would have felt without that ability to escape my reality. I carpool for a mom finishing her BSN and her son told me he hates reading, and he's only ever read one book that wasn't assigned to him. He's almost 13. He's a beautiful, kind, intelligent kid and he has smart parents but they haven't been able to fix this, they don't know how or where to go. How will this child be able to develop critical thinking skills and learn anything well when he's almost to high school and functionally illiterate? (This might be the longest run-on sentence in a lifetime of lengthy tangents, sorry 🖤)
I really hope someone can show the kid the magic that lies in books. I really really enjoyed reading when I was young, I had a similar story to Josh, minus the relative who helped me read faster. I could read at young age, but I never did really pick up the pace. I have ADHD, it makes it difficult, I have to reread whole pages. But I still escaped into the wonder of books. And as I got older, it was non fiction that grabbed me more.
But as a kid who didn't have rich pArents, the Library was the shit! Loved that place, movies, books , music, a big wonderful world of stories art just a full on escape, from the shitty things at home. Later came video games and drugs as escapes. But in the beginning the books were the movies, were the drugs, were the video games. I have and always will always have a deep love for books... Hell book memes even are funny AF
I have a shirt that says "At times I think to myself 'Drop the book and get stuff done!' Then, I laugh and turn the page."
I mean honestly it's really the most next level of procrastinating
Yes it can be, but I also think the kind of excessive amount of fiction reading I did as a child and continue to do is a big part of why I'm really firm in my progressive beliefs and hate injustice on the visceral level I think most thoughtful people do. Reading fiction is like getting to inhabit another person's life and viewing the world through the perspective of someone different from you is an important part of empathy. I am certain empathy and altruism exist even in places where the population hasn't got access to education or books. But I think it's more likely to be shared amongst the group the individual is in more and with strangers less. Empathy reduces fear and increases feeling connected to people you don't have the same background or culture at large in common with. It's something I just think helped and it fits if you reverse it decently but I could be totally wrong about it for anyone else.
I need to dive back into the galaxy that is books
Connecting, building relationships, and not letting infighting destroy us is so important.
How do we build movements that can support each other instead of trying to prove ours is the only right way?
Because we need all our expertise, experience and strategies.
This literary piece hits deep. Thank you for taking us back to those pivotal moments of your childhood. Sometimes we must recognize our present state and travel back in time to understand the meaning of our actions. Thanks again for putting perspective into your passion and drive!
"Reality is mundane when you’re told in so many ways that you can be anything, do anything, that life is supposed to be something grand and wonderful, while your actual experience each day is constituted by math homework and soccer practice."
This is a vivid encapsulation of the drudgery of youth. Extrinsically framed proclamations to keep young people in line. A great reminder that any liberation movement must take seriously youth liberation.
----
"I want to be realistic and pragmatic and I want to change the world much more than I want catharsis. Or rather I have always wanted real change, but in years past I was impatient and naïve, blissfully so at times. Now I have a patience that has come largely from being thwarted, from being wrong about how the world works. There are, of course, moments of rupture, but underneath nearly all of them are years of planning and coordination and nurturing seeds of transformation."
I feel this.
I am contributing my own ounce of support.
Over the Long Haul
https://youtu.be/Dbpvla5hG-8?si=JxpOAxU0vV2GOV4I
Sometimes it seems so futile
Sometimes it seems unfair
Sometimes a hard won victory
Later vanishes in the air
Sometimes that slender of hope
Is just too small to see
Sometimes our trials and troubles
Seem greater than you and me
Chorus
It will take many strong arms to move those mountains
It will take faith to lift us when we fall
It will take all the love our hearts can pull together
To sustain us over the long haul
Sometimes we start backsliding
Sometimes we lose our way
Sometimes we lack the fortitude
To plant our flag and stay
But we can recall our courage
And define our destiny
Our faith can raise a fortress
Greater than you and me
Chorus
We have to stand together
Or we'll surely fall apart
It's said the strongest muscle
Is the one we call the heart
We cannot call on progress
To bring equality
But the dream that calls us onward
Is greater than you and me
Chorus
It will take many strong arms to move those mountains
It will take faith to lift us when we fall
It will take all the love our hearts can pull together
To sustain us over the long haul
Thanks, that is the task at hand
This is really lovely. Nothing seems adequate to the moment when genocide is ongoing, covid is continuing to spread without any real efforts to protect anyone and immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and poor people are under attack.
I struggle with how little I can do. With stage IV duodenal cancer on palliative chemo right now most of my efforts are involved in ensuring my husband and animals will be okay when I'm gone but I'd also like to be sure my life counts for something.
Your life matters because if you were as kind and eloquent even 1/100 of it as you are in this comment then that kindness went out in the world with you and dispersed to others to pass it on, pay it forward. That inner generosity that gets the sudden nudge to act with compassion even though it's harder, it has to come from somewhere. And now I know that sometimes it's coming from you. It will remain always.
wow Robin, thank you for your honesty -- and if it means anything I will say that every word, post, comment, thought really can do something these days.... sharing your voice makes people feel less alone, feel like they're listened to. You still have something to contribute because obviously you're right here. Blessings to you and yours this holiday season
Hi Joshua -- thank you again for an excellent, heartfelt essay. This resonates deeply for me especially as a poet and fellow fantasy-lover. "nothing worth having comes easy": work and time and years of exploration are best, within ourselves and with each other. I do feel fortified, because I know that my voice isn't alone. peace
What a lovely piece! It feels like every day is a battle to stay present, but the more I do the more I enjoy life. It would be a lie to say I no longer plan ahead-- but I live much more in the moment now. I hope to keep chugging along and get to the right place in my community eventually.
Excellent lifelong learning story. My brilliant father used to say, Student for Life! I respect your dedication to important causes close to your heart and all the energy spent trying to make the world a better place. I too try to do my bit. There is great book you should read if you haven't already. Gandhi is a personal hero with his militant civil disobedience to fight for social justice and his Satyagraha aka Truth Force philosophy, which is a mix of religions East and West, philosophies and contemporary writers around his time like Tolstoy. Erik Ericsson, the famous child psychologist did a in depth study biography of Gandhi called Gandhi's Truth, and actually went to India to those still alive who were close to him to get a full and honest picture of this icon of history who refused to kill but fought using his and others followers bodies in civil disobedience acts to awaken the moral conscience of his opponents or what later disciple Martin Luther King called moral mental jujitsu. It's a must read for anyone who wants to make the world a better place without resorting to violence or killing. Keep up the great work!
I think we all have to find the patience to slow down and sound things out, from time to time. It is such a difficult road, trying to rebuild and start afresh, and as you point out, everything feels so urgent. I very much sympathise with your seven year old self in that regard!
Thank you so much Joshua about sharing your personal struggles with reading...as someone who only recently "relearned" how to read (at age 52!) I think there is so much shame that halts people, freezes us in shame. Hearing that others struggle is a BIG deal.
And the focus onto thinking long term, of seeing ourselves as connected to both the past & the future- yes, we need this as an antidote to our impatient culture.
"I slip into fantasy, into escape and numbness from time to time, but today I crave intimate contact with reality. I want to be realistic and pragmatic and I want to change the world much more than I want catharsis. Or rather I have always wanted real change, but in years past I was impatient and naïve, blissfully so at times. Now I have a patience that has come largely from being thwarted, from being wrong about how the world works. There are, of course, moments of rupture, but underneath nearly all of them are years of planning and coordination and nurturing seeds of transformation."
Thank you Joshua. I wrote about something similar to the planting seeds aspect of your post. I thought you might want to read. https://lovelessons.substack.com/p/love-is-an-action?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
Lovely ❤️