Tom Rupp: Reading and writing repeated

Two habits, or practices, that serve a person well from childhood through youth, from adulthood through old age, are the habits of reading and writing. The two go hand in hand. As a general rule, most people first learn how to read, to put letters together into words, and then to put words together into coherent sentences. Since elementary school, I have always loved to read. I still have "My Father's Dragon," "Charlotte's Web," and "Cricket in Times Square." Oh, and don't forget "From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" and "The Five Chinese Brothers." These books all got me started on the lifelong journey that has yet to end. When I became a Christian at age 14, the King James version of the Bible became my book. I read it through cover to cover three times in my first year of walking with God, and many more times since. In addition, I have journeyed through "Pilgrim's Progress" several times. I taught my sons, and anyone else who would listen, that readers are leaders. The practice of writing usually follows next in school. To put a story together and see it on paper gives a young person, or any person for that matter, quite the feeling of accomplishment ("I wrote that"). Some years ago I wrote a column about the 6-word autobiography, after reading a book of 6-word contributions from all sorts of people. You can even do it for fictional stories, such as Ernest Hemingway's classic - "For sale: baby shoes. Never worn." What a story lies behind those six words. I recently read an article in the September issue of Writer's Digest titled "10 Reasons to Write 100-Word Stories." Any aspiring writer would benefit from reading it. Last week I took a bag of books to a used book store and they gave me eight dollars total for them. It just so happens that, while waiting for the total, I browsed around and came across "On Writing" by Stephen King, for eight dollars. So it was a straight up trade. I'm already on page 43. Many of us read in order to write in order to read. The cycle is endless. Cellist Pablo Casals is reported to have said, when asked why he still practiced into his 80's, "Because I think I am making progress." I hope to continue reading and writing into old age, making progress. Tom is a Folsom resident and weekly Telegraph columnist. You can reach him at truppfolsom@yahoo.com