My father gave me a love of walking.

I look at these ducklings and am reminded who grateful I am for a lifetime of walking.  My mother?  She gave me my love of reading.  Practical life lessons, for sure.  

How are walking and reading connected?

Beside being gerunds, they connect by moving us toward and through image and sound. As if exercising some form of inherent punctuation, a physical object invites us to linger – to see and re-see. Words, being read, have as their locomotion (not in every language, of course) a left to right destination, propelling us along a straight line of sound. Of course, in poetry the straight can curve, wobble and/or stop, rather abruptly.

Along the way – pavement and print -- much to see. Much to hear.



Consider food in the context of walking and reading. I walk to market on the way to the library. I read a lot of c-books (cook & children’s). Children’s picture books are a journey and meal onto themselves. An on-the-spot picnic.

What are 3 good reasons not to write?

A hint: the same is true for not reading. ……guess they aren’t worth mentioning.

Let’s explore the positive. Consider 3 good reasons to cook.
1. aroma
2. color
3. taste
Add a 4th: feed a friend. Good night.

As a child, do you remember which book made you say, "I will learn to read?"

For me it was Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (translated by Edward FitzGerald, Random House, 1947). The color illustrations and gilded borders were nothing like I was accustomed to growing up in a small, northern New Jersey town. No reference points except a wanting to experience.


Nothing like your first book; nothing like a Jersey tomato.