Between the Covers
Dear Songezo,
I too share your love for reading.
Between the pages of a book, I have found not only solace but have learnt many a lesson that I would not have otherwise learnt.
I have realised the ability to be strong, courageous and true to myself through Danielle Steel’s Lucky.
Through R J Palacio’s Wonder, I have reaffirmed that what matters more is what is inside a man, rather than what his appearance screams at you.
Betty Mahmoody has shown me that a parents love is the strongest, unbreakable bond that has ever existed, via Not without My Daughter.
Love in a torn land, a tale of endless of love; moving mountains to be with the other half of your whole, opened my eyes to a love so real, it would risk death. Jean Sasson opened my heart, mind, and eyes to the existence of a love so strong.
While Michele Macfarlane broke down the boundaries of love and helped me understand that love has no gender, no colour, and no age. Love has nothing to stop it but the minds of those whose understanding is limited.
Saskia Sarginson reiterated believing my gut, trusting my instinct and doing what I feel is the best thing in my heart of hearts.
Escape from Camp 14 tugged at my heart strings, made my heart bleed and ache for the endless human beings being subjected to lives of nothingness, lives shaded by the atrocities that are their everyday realities, seemingly living in the shadows of a world all too willing to turn a blind eye.
Flanked by covers that are sometimes unappealing and positively off-putting, I have found courage, love, strength, fear… I have found treasures that are lost to many people of my generation, sadly.
In these pages my mind has expanded, explored and refused to be dumbed down. In these pages I have learnt to want more, be more, do more.
I am of an age of individuals who would rather stare at a screen than let their imagination run free. I am of an age where education seems to be slipping through our fingers at a time where it is more accessible than it has ever been. An age where we are all too willing to voice an opinion with no substance, no true foundation and no wall sustaining the crumbling walls of society. An age where, dare we voice an opinion with an actual back-done, it is called satanic, unpatriotic and anti-governmental.
I fear where we are heading. And I fear more that there are no pages between two covers that will sufficiently prepare me for where we are headed.
Books might not be everything but, they are a good starting point. The key to a door leading to wisdom, better leaders and a greater society.
Signed by a self-proclaimed-and-proud-bookworm,
C.
(Written in response to an article written by Songezo Zibi for Financial Mail dated 27 February 2014)
