by Curt Williams, Executive Director & Founder of Youth-Reach
When I was young, I traveled with an English family who braved an angry North Atlantic in a wooden sailing vessel, to come to the new land called America. The Sackett’s were a hardy bunch, and I walked in the boots of generation after generation as they settled in the New World and later traveled west in hopes of both adventure and freedom. Louis L’Amour was my guide, and I was often lost within the pages of his books, where I discovered along with the Sacketts the beauty and challenges of our noble land. I learned the timeline of our nation’s history not from classroom participation, but through the fascination of being there.
During my late teenage years, drawn by great quests and daring feats, I circled the globe and rounded Cape Horn with Joshua Slocum and Bernard Moitessier aboard small sailboats. I fought my way to the South Pole with Shackleton, and was part of the ragtag group of survivors when his ship was caught in the ice and crushed on Elephant Island. Against all odds, I summited Everest for the first time with Sir Edmund Hillary and his Sherpa companion, Tenzing Norgay. And I braved the deep with the early hardhat divers who often lost their lives pursuing the challenge of exploring the ocean’s depths.
Later in life, I traveled back in time to the frigid and bloody trenches of World War I and after the annihilation of Germany, witnessed the political ascension of Adolph Hitler. I lived through the quiet horror of life aboard a Nazi U-boat, and experienced the terror of those in the Allied navies that these deadly predators sought to destroy. I was there when a flotilla of civilian craft rescued thousands from the beaches of Dunkirk. And I stormed the beaches of Normandy with the brave men who saw freedom as a worthy trade for their lives.
In my early twenties, I spent time along the Korean DMZ where life was full of unknowns and I participated in this undeclared yet bloody war. As a crew member of a US navy gunboat, I patrolled the Mekong River in Viet Nam, went on dark night patrols with invisible SEALS, and sat in the meetings where unprepared politicians blindly gambled the lives of those they commanded.
During a season when I sought answers for the troubled kids I found on the streets, I experienced life with some of the most disturbed and demented among us. I witnessed the insanity of Jack the Ripper, the Boston Strangler, and the Zodiac Killer. It disturbed my sleep to explore the depraved minds of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, and Charles Manson.
I have conquered the Seven Summits with Ed Vesteurs, fought a marlin with Earnest Hemingway, and ran a 120-mile ultra-marathon through Death Valley with Dean Karnazes. I have been in wars from ancient Byzantium to Desert Storm. My mind and my faith have been challenged by George Muller, Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley. I have traveled to Africa with David Livingstone and to India with William Carey and Lottie Moon. The scourge of slavery was exposed to me by my Christian brother Frederick Douglass.
I have walked in the cool evening of Eden, heard the hoof beats of Pharaoh’s army along the Red Sea, fought Philistines with King David, walked Galilee with Jesus, and shared in the cowardice of the disciples at the cross.
All because I read.
I’ve spanned the earth, visited both remote villages and crowded cities, witnessed ancient civilizations and traveled into the future. I’ve narrowly escaped death hundreds of times, untangled complicated mysteries, and discovered the amazing intellect of the masters of war, business, exploration and spirituality.
I have met those along my journey who say, “Well I’m not a reader”. I feel sad for those people. Their worldview is small, their experiences limited, their opinions rarely challenged and their imaginations are atrophied. Reading says that you have not learned it all, and are seeking information, depth and maturity. Books are windows into opportunities and rare chances to walk in the shoes of others.
As parents, there are many gifts that we can give to our kids, but to instill a love of the written page, and the infinite possibilities found there, is a profound investment. In a world that is increasingly saturated by the digital and the technical, to disconnect with a good book is like a tiny vacation. I am grateful for the many opportunities that reading affords to me, and to pass on this passion to my kids is one of the greatest gifts I can imagine giving to each of them.