Reading is a fundamental building block for developing an educated mind. Probably more than most people realize.
It seems more and more difficult, though, to find the time to sit and let your mind absorb the wonders of a good book.
It’s even more difficult to get children to read. Or, some anyway.
We are constantly distracted by our phones, televisions, and computers, leaving little time for books.
One boy, however, prefers reading to all of that.
12-year-old Mathew Flores only had junk mail to read.
He figured it was better than nothing, but he went through it awfully fast.
So, when the postal carrier, Ron Lynch, came by to deliver Mathew’s family their mail, Mathew jumped on the opportunity to ask Lynch if there was any more junk mail that he could have to read.
When Lynch heard this, he knew that he could get Mathew something better read.
He would get him actual books instead. So he put a post up on Facebook, encouraging others to send Mathew their favorite books for him to read.
Lynch had this to say about Mathew in an interview he did with Denver7,
“This young man, he just wanted to read, you know, and that touched my heart. There’s a Mathew in every neighborhood, in every city, in every state, in every country in the world.”
Thanks to Lynch, there is no shortage of books in Mathew’s life now.
People from every corner of the world have sent him books.
In fact, they’ve helped him accrue a collection numbering in the hundreds.
Mathew is very grateful, of course, and is planning to send some of these books to his cousins in Mexico.
This story is great on multiple levels.
For one, it’s awesome to see a kid who is still interested in books and reading. So much of our society is geared towards screen use these days.
There are many advantages to technology, however, and those shouldn’t be overlooked. But there are many advantages to reading as well.
And in many cases, reading is a much better use of your time than staring at screens.
Lynch’s determination to help Mathew is beyond inspiring.
He could have just as easily given Mathew some more junk mail to read and left it at that. But Lynch knew that reading junk mail was a far cry from reading actual books.
The final piece of awesomeness is the overwhelming response on Facebook.
People couldn’t send in their books fast enough, and that’s just beautiful, isn’t it?
The ability to connect billions of people across the globe in a positive way is definitely one of the finer points of technology.
If it weren’t for that, Mathew wouldn’t have the book collection he does now.
And we wouldn’t get to be inspired by it.
Learn more about this heartwarming story in the video below!
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