In Springfield, Missouri, directly west of Central High School, is the Midtown Carnegie Branch Library. If you decide to visit the Midtown Branch sometime over the next two months, you’ll see a representative sampling of Sophie’s art on display. I really like the waterfall and the dandelion paintings.
In the basement of the Midtown Carnegie Branch Library is Ozarks Literacy Council. OLC is a small non-profit organization doing a massive amount of work – providing free literacy tutoring for anyone in need.
Last year, I had the opportunity to be part of the Words and Pictures project that was a partnership between OLC and photographer Randy Bacon. I wrote the following words that were featured next to the image of my glove-covered head.
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In 1982, the year I started second grade, my family moved from Grand Junction, Colorado to Springfield, Missouri. I still remember seeing the green Springfield city limits sign for the first time after the lengthy trek across Kansas. That same year, I read my first two baseball books — Pete Rose’s Winning Baseball and George Brett’s Born To Hit. Reading those books stirred major league dreams. The summer after second grade, I played on my first baseball team, wearing red and white striped tall socks and a mesh-backed trucker-style hat that left a funny tan line on my bald head.
Those first two baseball books created a love for a baseball-centered narrative. Over the years, I’ve read countless baseball stories and learned lessons applicable to all of life.
I read about Jackie Robinson and learned of the humble and determined courage necessary to change a country.
I read about Roberto Clemente and the example he set on and off the field in loving his neighbors.
I read about Buck O’Neil and learned to always, always, always choose hope.
Byron Borger owns Hearts & Minds Books, a literal mom-and-pop bookstore in Dallastown, Pennsylvania. Byron sends books out all over the country and once sent me a book for free. Surprisingly, it was not a baseball book.
“I read this book and thought of you,” he wrote on a post-it-note and stuck it to the cover of The Echo Within by Robert Benson. It is one of those books I’ve since purchased several times and can’t seem keep a copy on my bookshelf; I keep giving it away to friends.
At the end of the book was a note saying that, should I want to contact the author, I could. So, I did. I wrote a letter thanking him for his story. A couple weeks later, I received a postcard from him with an invitation to call at my nearest convenience. I called and learned that Benson would be coming to my city on a book tour. He wanted to know if I would like to have dinner with him.
At that dinner, Benson said, “This world is desperate for good sentences, for good stories, and for those who are willing to do the hard work necessary to bring them to life.”
I’ve carried Benson’s words with me as I started writing my own books.
Thirty-six years after my family first moved to Springfield, ten years after that dinner with Robert Benson, I lived my own baseball adventure. Inspired by my daughters, every single day for an entire year, I played catch and made more than 500 new friends. That story is now a book, A Year of Playing Catch.
Byron read my book and wrote this, “Ethan writes about fear and hope, about goals and social change, about family and hospitality, about sexism and racism, about money and power, about seeing the good in others as we listen to their stories. The antics he has to perform to make this daily dream a reality is captivating. The drama makes this quixotic plan that took him across the country into a very good story and a really great book.”
The goal of literacy is not solely to acquire knowledge and a random assortment of facts and trivia, whether it’s the number of hits Pete Rose had (4,256) or the lifetime batting average of George Brett (.305).
Literacy helps us learn how to live our own good stories.
To take risks and face fears.
To go on adventures and chase dreams.
And most importantly, to make new friends.
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OLC enters 2023 with big dreams.
Finding new volunteer tutors willing to work with those wanting to read. (There’s a waiting list of students.)
Finding new financial sponsors. (A donation of $25 covers a month of tutoring.)
And getting a certain board member to not be so snarky. (I’ll work on it.)
Today, I played catch with OLC’s Executive Director Amy Jardell. I am honored to call Amy a friend and to work with her as I offer my snarky comments as part of OLC’s Board of Directors.
Now, I am honored to call her a catch partner, too.
