fREADom by Camelia Walker

Celebrating the Fourth of July usually makes 

me think of freedom and the Declaration of 

Independence, especially the part about 

equality and inalienable rights. Today I’ll 

share a few ways that reading has been a 

tool for my own freedom.

LIFE

Reading supports my life because I can read about ways to improve and preserve health.  From books on yoga and making your own kombucha tea to magazine articles on the safest car to drive, reading has been a primary source of good health for me. In addition to physical health, biographies, histories, and philosophical books are doorways to knowledge about leading a good life.

LIBERTY

Books have been a major key to my personal freedom. Starting as a young child who read anything I could get my hands on—from cereal boxes to encyclopedias, reading was the greatest escape, the most delightful voyage and the most fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon…and a Saturday night…and the wee hours of a Sunday morning. A particular book, the Tennessee Comprehensive Driver License Manual, along with a patient big brother, were the keys to my driving freedom. Getting my provisional driver’s license at the green age of 15 was such a thrill! I was only allowed to drive to and from school but that independence felt like a giant step.

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

When I think about my happiness journey, the one thing I can definitively assert is that the journey would not have been so rewarding without books and the ability to read. It has been through books that I’ve learned the most useful keys of happiness. It was Norman Vincent Peale and the Dalai Lama who taught me that happiness is less a pursuit and more a lens through which I can view the world. The poetry of Maya Angelou and Nikki Giovanni provided my 101-level classes in ‘rockin’ what I got’.  And it’s been countless authors who have given me days and months and years of entertainment through their intricate and sometimes ridiculous plots, amazing characters, and engaging stories.No matter how I think of freedom and my ability to move independently in the world, I cannot separate my liberty from the ability and opportunity to read. Because of that, from now on, I’ll always associate the Fourth of July with “fREADom!”