KEYNOTE ADDRESS—MONTE RIO
READING COUNCIL
When I was 30 I discovered I had
dyslexia.
When I was a child, my mind was like
the forest :
silent, impenetrable.
I remember third grade—
how I loved The Lion, the
Witch & the Wardrobe.
I was the lamp post in the
forest
only I couldn’t read.
The moment I learned to read was
magical.
Whole kingdoms unlocked—
I learned about bats,
sonar, dolphins, the stars,
the animals of the Galapagos,
the glaciers of Canada,
the Russian steppes,
the Incas in the Andes,
the pyramids of Mexico,
They fed my imagination.
I later went to all those far-off
places,
and because there was a story to
tell
I discovered the power of words and became a writer.
When I think back to that day I
learned to read
little did I know I’d be
standing here today
congratulating all of you
readers—pioneers of the future
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