Hello, children, I'm excited to be here to speak on a subject very near to my heart: Reading. Does anyone here read? I hope that you all do or at least will in the future; reading has had a profound effect upon my life and I know it can have the same for you. Now, specifically, I'm not talking about reading just any books, for there are many worthless books in the world which are not worthy of your attention. No, rather, I speak mainly of the books which inspire worthy deeds. Let me create a contrast for you.

First example: the Pilgrims. Now, what impact did reading have upon these people? They braved over two months of sea travel, survived the harsh wilderness of savage America, and established one of the first few enduring colonies. What motivated them to do this? The convictions which guided them through all of their hardships came from the Bible. They did not believe that the method of worship established by law in England was pleasing to God, so they left their homes and looked for another land, where they could freely worship. There, they settled and began the framing of a great nation.

Second example: Mr. Johnny Boie. The sad truth about Mr. Boie is that he didn't actually read anything of importance. Of course, from time to time, he read a newspaper or a TV guide, but never anything that really challenged him. He had no great love for books, for they took dreadful amounts of his time to read and required him to think too much. Or, at least that's how he felt about the matter. In any case, reading had no effect upon Mr. Boie because he never read good books.

Indeed, I believe you'll see a contrast here. The Pilgrims were led to do everything they did out of loyalty to the God which they found in Scripture. Mr. Boie wasn't really changed or impacted at all by what he read, so he pursued it very little. It is a sad contrast which shows that you should not just be reading in general, but reading good books in particular. That is what I believe needs emphasizing, so please consider how much what you're reading now will actually mean to you 10 years down the road. Thank you. No, really, thank you! :-)

[slide 1: The Pilgrims coming to America. ]

[slide 2: One book they read was the Bible. ]

[slide 4: Mr. Johnny Boie watching TV. ]

[slide 5: He mainly reads TV guides. ]

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Informative speeches, bleh. Well, it sure took me a while to come up with this, since when it comes to reading I have a huge amount of sub-rational excitement and an instinctive reaching toward my wallet, but not a terribly-well worked out philosophy of reading. I have a lot of opinions, to be sure, but I'm confident that they're best kept out of the range of public scrutiny until I've properly checked them. Well, I think they liked it, so I suppose all went well. Or, have I sent it in yet?

Later, folk. :-)