Every semester that I taught world religions at FSU, I would ask of my students:
1) How many of you—raise your hands—feel this way about MUSIC? You cannot even imagine your life without it. No doubt your heart would go on pumping blood, but you would not be able to thrive without music. It’s so much more to you than mere ‘wallpaper.’ Music is a core part of your identity, of how you experience and understand yourself.”
(IN A LECTURE HALL OF 145 STUDENTS, ABOUT 140 WOULD RAISE THEIR HANDS.)
2) How many of you—raise your hands—feel this way about BOOKS? Your heart would be poverty-stricken without them. You would feel so lonely and isolated were you not invited to connect with the souls of men and women of all races and places and times through books! How strangely intimate it is to laugh and cry with people who lived hundreds of years ago. Books form a core part of your identity, of how you experience and understand yourself.”
(IN A LECTURE HALL OF 145 STUDENTS, ABOUT 20 WOULD RAISE THEIR HANDS.)
Yet these non-reading young people are not as book-deprived as their parents. Eight in 10 Americans under the age of 30 have read a book in the past year, compared with 7 in 10 adults in general, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.
1) How many of you—raise your hands—feel this way about MUSIC? You cannot even imagine your life without it. No doubt your heart would go on pumping blood, but you would not be able to thrive without music. It’s so much more to you than mere ‘wallpaper.’ Music is a core part of your identity, of how you experience and understand yourself.”
(IN A LECTURE HALL OF 145 STUDENTS, ABOUT 140 WOULD RAISE THEIR HANDS.)
2) How many of you—raise your hands—feel this way about BOOKS? Your heart would be poverty-stricken without them. You would feel so lonely and isolated were you not invited to connect with the souls of men and women of all races and places and times through books! How strangely intimate it is to laugh and cry with people who lived hundreds of years ago. Books form a core part of your identity, of how you experience and understand yourself.”
(IN A LECTURE HALL OF 145 STUDENTS, ABOUT 20 WOULD RAISE THEIR HANDS.)
Yet these non-reading young people are not as book-deprived as their parents. Eight in 10 Americans under the age of 30 have read a book in the past year, compared with 7 in 10 adults in general, according to a recent Pew Research Center report.
