Read for life

As one would assume, I have a vested interest in books. Mostly mine, as I would like to sell a million and be filthy rich, but, that takes time. What I'm rambling about today is not the books themselves, but what you do with them; reading.

My Beloved and I were watching a show the other night, an investigative show about a crime. I think it was one of the 48 Hours types of shows. Detectives were trying to make the girlfriend of the suspect spill the beans, as it were. It was a contrast in speech, to say the least. The detectives spoke normal English with full sentences. They weren't using 'big' words. It was just common vernacular. The girlfriend however, almost couldn't put a sentence together without using any phrase or dialect that didn't come off the street.

As I listened to her, I closed my eyes. If I were to pick her out of a lineup simply by her speech, I wouldn't have been able to tell you if she was black, white, southern, northern or anywhere else specific. Did she have an education? Likely from the street. Then the thought crossed my mind; I wonder when the last time this person picked up the printed word in nearly any form and read it? I'm sure she simply looks at the pictures in The Enquirer, and that's about it.

One doesn't have to be an A+ student to get through life and be moderately successful. Think about where this person's life could be if she just picked up a book and read once in a while. Urban-speak to me is simply being lazy. Like it or not, one is judged often on what comes out of their mouth. A person brands them self with their speech. I am overly educated; I am a normal person with a grasp of the language, or I speak like an uneducated slouch.

Opportunity is often what you make of it, or make of yourself.