Today I take a break from my ongoing blog series to share some thoughts on last nights big event...namely the Superbowl.
My favorite moment by far did not happen on the television screen. While trolling through Twitter and reading all of the reactions to the morbid Nationwide commercial (I'll let you look that one up if you happen to be the ONLY person on the planet who hasn't seen it or any of the memes it produced) I came across a very simple tweet from a reader.
This intelligent young woman simply stated that while the rest of her family was watching the Superbowl she was enjoying a book.
At first this might not sound like much but let the implication sink in for a moment.
While the rest of us (including me, I freely admit) were engrossed in a ballgame this young woman was reading. The significance of this may not be obvious but allow me to expand.
In a world filled with handheld and online video games (not to mention YouTube and what not) this young woman prefers to read. I am both shocked and encouraged by this admission. I myself love reading and prefer it to most forms of media. If I have learned anything by tracking my book sales these past few years it is that more readers use an electronic device (aka Kindle or Nook) to read books than actually buy paper books these days.
I am a bit of a dinosaur, I'll admit, in many ways. My preference for actual books further alienates me from the average American. I still like to hold a book in my hand and I rarely go anywhere without one type of book or another in hand. (Right now I am reading Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski.)
It was refreshing to see this tweet from someone significantly younger than me during the Superbowl. Now I can't be sure whether the tweeter (is that even a word?) was reading a paper book or on an electronic device. The truth is, it doesn't really matter.
What matters is that she rejected the social norm to stare blankly at a screen all day and she chose to read instead.
I hope that all of you find this anomaly as encouraging as I do.
Until next time...
KEEP WRITING! (and reading!)
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