Opinion
(2007-01-23)
Listen Now:
OXFORD, OH
(WMUB) -
Have you read any good books lately? Commentator Tom Romano is passionate about literature and reading. He says a great book not only tells a story about the characters within its pages but makes us more keenly aware of our own story.
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At Miami University in 1971 I took a theatre class from Dr. Barry Witham. We had read Samuel Beckett's absurdist drama, Waiting For Godot. I was eager to hear Dr. Witham's comments. The play had stumped me. Like the two characters, I, too, had waited for Godot, but he never showed
Dr. Witham walked into class just a tad late, looking serious, carrying no books or notes.
My dad was a minister, he said. When I was a boy, we drove cross country to a religious convention. Dad went straight to the convention hall for mileage reimbursement. While waiting in line, he turned to talk to the man behind him. Before the man replied, my father collapsed dead of a heart attack.
There was no sound in the classroom. Our eyes were on Dr. Witham. Something rare and important was happening. I'd never heard a professor reveal such personal information.
Dr. Witham told two more stories that afternoon involving waiting and an unpredictable event that followed. He never mentioned Godot or the two characters who waited. He didn't pinpoint the major theme of the drama, didn't place it historically in the development of modern theater. He didn't even explain the meaning of his three stories. In ten minutes he dismissed us.
That afternoon I called Dr. Witham and told him how terrific the class had been. I didn't tell him why. I don't know that I could have. Now, however, almost thirty-six years later, I understand what was going on in me. Through Dr. Witham's stories, I intuitively understood existentialist philosophy that drives Waiting For Godot, the notion that randomness and chaos rule the universe.
Seven years earlier when I was fifteen my father went with four friends to bowl in a tournament. When they arrived at the bowling alley, they found there had been a scheduling mix-up. The tournament didn't start until the next night. So they went to the racetrack, stayed for only three races, then left for home. Their car was struck head-on by two men drag racing. My father was killed. Oh, I understood randomness and chaos. A scheduling mix-up? Drag racers on a public road?
That spring day at Miami Dr. Witham showed us that literature is about our lives, not just the lives of fictional characters. Literary criticism and theories are what academia is about. But that isn't what matters. What matters is the blood pumping through our veins. Literature is about the blessed senses and the power of language to waken them. Literature sharpens our perceptions, makes us slow down and consider.
I was able to track down Dr. Witham at the University of Washington and sent him a version of this story. He was stunned and appreciative to hear from a former student from so long ago who remembered a class in such detail.
This memory of teaching and learning and literature is a good lesson for literacy teachers, kindergarten through college. Through the focused power of stories, students can connect dramatically with human experience. They can come to know others; they can come to know themselves. Amid our reading strategies and state literacy standards, let's remember that the reason for reading literature is life the characters' lives, our children's lives, our own.
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