1/22/15 What Happens To People That Don't Read?

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance"

 I was writing worrying about myself and the idea of filling my brain with new ideas and possibly even ways to string sentences together like a Jane Austen or even an Ernest Hemingway, but then it occurred to me, most people don't even want to be bothered with reading books.  What happens to these poor souls?  Are some people entertained just by the hum of a fan blowing air in a room?  Do they process so much information by just staring out the window that there is no need to add a little fiction?
    Taking it farther back, to high school, maybe students are required to read a few books a year their junior and senior year.  A high school dropout will not even read these and statistics say up to 1.2 million students a year drop out.  This is a population that seems to be growing and the shame is that the only thing that does get to fill their minds is television, I love TV, but if you have no appreciation of letting your mind build a character out of words, you are not going to let some fantasy creature exist, even on the screen.  In time, the only thing on TV will be soaps, news, sports, and reality TV.
    These people worry me, life has so much to give when you interact, when you are part of it.  But if you are so far behind, life becomes complicated, easy exchanges where you might attempt to be clever and quote a line from something might just be taken as an insult from Joe Average.  Out in the world, my first instinct is to interact as little as possible, especially with guys.  Until I get to know someone, I really don't care to open up.  My style is to be free and a bit of a smart-ass.  Slow people quickly assume that I am being disrespectful, not my cup of tea, but you bring that upon yourself when you live with your head stuck in the sand.
    Please, encourage your kids to read, it might be too late for you, but don't let the next generation of you be another batch of donkeys, if the moniker fits.  Reading should never be seen as a punishment, if your boys don't read, hand them Playboys and leave them alone.  They may become fans, just for the articles, it really is a good magazine to read, it has interesting things in all facets of life.  Both my boys are constantly working on different books, I used to worry about Boy (has dyslexia), but he reads all the time, and one of our family hangouts is going to the bookstore once a month or so.
    So where are the people that don't read?  My fear is that all around us.