Listen To The Mustn’ts
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass is one of my favorite books.
When I was in college, I connected with Douglass’ autobiography because it vividly described his journey to literacy.
As a young boy, Douglass was enslaved and changed hands a couple times until he was finally given to a master whose wife began teaching him the alphabet. Upon finding out, the master put a stop to the lessons.
But, it was too late.
The seeds of language were planted when Douglass learned his letters. From then on, regardless of who “owned” him, Douglass sought reading lessons from anyone who could teach him. It was a dream he finally realized while enduring the horrors of enslavement.
The evils of enslavement never stopped Douglass from achieving his goal. In fact, it fueled his passion.
He knew well that reading promotes and nurtures independent thinking. He knew reading, in fact, can be revolutionary.
Douglass sprinkled the seeds of reading throughout his enslaved community, coaxing these skills to sprout within each person he taught, watching knowledge unfurl, grow, and spread.
His story rooted in me a firm belief that all people have the right to education and free books. Libraries are a critical necessity in all communities.
It is Douglass I think of every time I stock a Little Free Library. (More on Little Free Library in a future post.)
With each book I slide into a library, I think of either of Douglass or my mother, who planted the first seeds of reading in me.
Books are a gateway to other worlds. They are the cheapest way to vacation. Books educate. They tell us stories of virtues and faith. They can lead us to spirituality. And, they can even be a conduit to the love of someone you’ve lost.
My mother gave me Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein for Christmas in 1980. She inscribed it “May this be the most delightful treasure of them all!”
It was. It is still.
This book is invaluable for the lessons therein. But to ensure I connected with the messages, she drew and scribbled things in the margins and pages she knew would catch my eye. She was an artist and musician…ever attempting to invoke enchantment.
The page my mother drew the most stars on is the page on which the poem “Listen to the Mustn’ts” is written.
The message of the poem, and her gift, is that anything is possible.
Hope.
Yes, books can give us hope.
Hope is what drove Douglass through his reading journey, and what carried him out of enslavement.
And so I hold tight with hope to what I know to be true, despite the fear and anxiety that current news would have me believe. Instead, I subscribe to the promise that anything is possible.
Anything can be.
More details
Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass Page length: 200ish Genre: Autobiography, Historical
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein Page length: 176 Genre: Children’s poetry
