Why Readers and Writers are the Very Best Kind of People
Why Readers and Writers
are the Very Best Kind of People
by Julie Butcher-Fedynich
Sometimes it really is the final straw that breaks the camel’s back. Little things pile up on us and there isn’t enough good to maintain balance. One more cross word or look sets us over the edge. Other times, things are swimming along just fine when a meteor falls out of the sky and blows up your house.
It’s always something, right?
Recently you may have heard about my own disaster. It involved my husband’s leg and chainsaws.
There! What you did right there. That is why readers and writers are the best people in the world to have as friends. I said chainsaw and leg and you immediately used your imagination to create screaming and carnage and blood and maybe a guy in a hood running about saying, Bwahahaha!”. Okay there was all of that except the guy but the point it, I didn’t have to tell you. You just knew. It’s like you are magical. Probably because your wonderful brain is magical.
Everyone can’t do this. I know, I can see you shaking your head and thinking that this is not a true fact, but it is. You are very special.
When I said leg and chainsaw to non-readers, they said things like, “Oh, how many stitches did he get?” or “How much blood did he lose?” They asked number questions, because they can’t see what you and I can with a few words. They want to measure pain. I finally told then that on a scale of one through ten, it was an eight. No one died and no limbs went into the hazmat dumpster.
The point here is that readers and writers get it, and since they understand on a visceral level, they are nicer. I can’t tell you how many people jumped in to help immediately after the accident. Before the first surgery was finished, readers and writers were making plans to help with his hospital bills. I was overwhelmed with kindness and awed that I knew so many amazingly kind and wonderful people.
If fact, I was so flabbergasted that I told a friend that I didn’t feel like I deserved the help. She in turn reminded me of a few things I had done for others that I had totally forgotten about. (I still didn’t think I was awesome or anything but I was taken by the idea that I had failed to recall so many things that other people remembered.)
In fact, this very phenomenon intrigued so much that I went to social media and asked two things.
1. What is the nicest thing you’ve done for anyone?
2. What is the nicest thing anyone has done for you?
The results were interesting. Very few people can remember anything nice that they did for others. One friend flat out said that she never did anything nice or kind. (I know that this is a lie because she’s jumped up to help me.) Then several people hopped on her denial train to prove all of the wonderful things she had done. But she didn’t remember these either or poo-pooed the idea that this was special..
Yet when I asked people what was the nicest thing people had done for them the answers poured in. Everyone remembers a kindness. Whether small or large, they can all recall the good someone showed them. This is extraordinary to a degree that is staggering. There are good, no, awesome people in the world, and there are a lot of them.
Readers and writers are grateful people. Years after they received a helping hand they still feel the warmth, relief, and wonderful feelings associated with that action. They are still thankful to that 
person who has long ago forgotten that they helped. I get that. I really do. We remember kindness just like we can’t get a great book we’ve read out of our heads. Good is good.
But you see, the thing about book people that is special is they forget the bad stuff. Frankly, I know that there have been people in my life who were mean. There were books that I read that were horrible. I couldn’t tell you the names of either the books, or the authors, or the people.
I can list books I love all day long. I can tell you people who are wonderful and kind and that you should get to know for hours and hours. I can give you examples of the awesome things that they have done for individuals, and for me. In fact, I am willing to bet green money that any book lover can do the same.
There is a huge, world-wide community of intelligent, loving people out there. The members are kind and generous and the very best this world has to offer. I am proud and honored to say that I am a member and that I love books.
Written by Julie Butcher-Fedynich
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