Philosophy | Cathy C. Hall Writes

Another year, another Banned Books Week, and once again, I’m shocked when I peruse the titles that have been banned and/or challenged. Take a look at this list, from the American Library Association’s website. Bet you’ve read many of these books, somewhere along the road to higher knowledge. Provocative prose is guaranteed to make you think. Maybe that’s why it scares some folks.

I have to admit that the idea of banning books makes me smile. I can’t help thinking about my mom and one of her favorites sayings, “Don’t put peas up your nose.” Because of course, if you tell a little kid not to put peas up his nose (or her nose-this blog believes in equal peas for all), what’s the first thing that the kid is going to do?

Yeah, that’s right. It’s off to the doctor’s office to extract peas from a nose. So, I kinda think the best way to get kids to read the best books is to tell them that the books have been BANNED.

Oh, my gosh. Those kids will be stampeding the libraries to get to those banned books. I’d love to see kids all over America reading this list of books.

But honestly, I’m happy to see kids, teens, adults, seniors, even alien life forms, reading any book. So, read a book, any book, and celebrate your freedom.

Many years ago, when my children were very young (they were so young, the third one was just a gleam in the Good Lord’s eye), I watched as a young mother walked out of a K-Mart and left her little brown-haired girl behind. The episode, and how the event unfolded, rocked me to the core of my beliefs. But it changed me, too.

Years later, when I started writing essays, the K-Mart story surfaced and begged to be told. I bet I wrote a dozen versions of that story. And each time I submitted the essay to a market, it came back with a “No, thanks.” I can’t say that surprised me. I knew there was something more I needed to tell, and that I hadn’t gotten to the heart of the story. Then I saw the Thin Threads Contest.

As described on the website, a thin thread is a “moment, event, setback, crossroad or encounter that connected you to a person, place or an opportunity that changed your life for the better.” I knew immediately that I had to try again.

I suppose that this time, I got it right. Because “A Little Brown-Haired Girl” was selected for Thin Threads, Special Edition: Compassion and Giving. They’re always looking for life-changing stories, and maybe you have one that’s just right for this series. Find out more at their website. Or submit your story for the Thin Threads Contest like I did.

I’ll be ordering a few copies of the Thin Threads Compassion and Giving, perhaps have a contest here and give it away. But it won’t really compare with what a little brown-haired girl gave me so many years ago.