Old Decathlon Olympics Journal

Late entry, was due May 3rd...

Note to self: Get over it, and pick up where you left off. You have never been a quitter, don't start now.

It is 6:00 am May 4th, 2004
Yesterday turned out to be a reading day. I never know when that is going to happen, but reading is ever bit as important as writing, at least to me it is. I am serious, I read all blasted day. Nearly read myself blind... I don't stop until I can no longer see the words on the page or screen. Just like it is said that you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince, well you have to read a lot to keep the faith in your own ability to write as far as I am concerned. I read things that inspire me. I read things that make me aspire to be a better writer. I read things that are so badly written, and I know that I could have done such a better job that the reading gives me hope that if that writer can get published -- surely I can! I read to experience new emotions, discover new and developing attitudes about subjects that I have never had an opportunity to face myself.

I am horrified at the number of people who cannot read, and more horrified at the number of people who don't see reading as a basic fundamental necessity of living. If I don't know how to do something - I can research it by reading about it. I have taught myself more things than teachers have taught me, but I would have never been able to learn if I had not been taught to read. I have not had a life time of opportunities to travel all over the world. I have been to Costa Rico, and that was a 21 day emersion program to earn language credits so I could graduate with a Bachalor of General Studies. I did not have a pot of money to spend on my trip to Costa Rico. I walked more and further in those 21 days than I have in 30 years. Why? I could not speak the language to be able to tell a taxi driver where I wanted to go. Seriously.

Now, about the emersion language thing, by time I got back I barely spoke Spanish or English. My poor mind was confused. The best way I can explain it is "They talk backwards." Their sentence structure is not set up like ours. The funny thing is I can read Spanish much better than I can speak it, and everybody has a unique speaking voice so forget about talking to me in Spanish except for common, much used pharses... For example: I can ask where is the bathroom in 10 different languages. I can ask for coffee in 12 languages. Now all of you do realize that if you drink coffee, the bathroom location is a major concern. You should be laughing or at least smiling at this point.

Let me remind you that I don't have to understand a particular language to understand the answer to either of the two previous questions. Everybody can point or lead you to the correct location, and coffee is a request that by body language a moron will know you need cream and sugar, but I usually carry my own to speed up the process of getting the coffee to my mouth.

Now I also can ask "How much?" in a couple of languages, but I quit worrying about that question when I realize two very important things: 1) I never have any money in any country's currency so I can't afford to buy any thing, 2) I would have to learn to understand all the possible replies, there is no pointing when the answer is not one univeral answer.

All of writing, and thoughts stem from the ability to read. I cannot and have not ever put all my thoughts about the importance of having the abilty to read in any one central locating. Since there is a daily word limit with this project I probably will not get most of them in this entry either. I do know that I often wonder what my life would have been like if I would have had the Internet available to me as a child, like most children in America have today.

The reading and Internet thoughts draws me to form other conclusions about the latest issues with the schools and all the testing that they are doing for placement and advancement of young students. How many generations of people were taught, almost exclusively, the basic reading, writing and arithmatic method? Have we faired so badly over the last few generations that it has been discovered that it is necessary to abandon and restructure proven learning models?