Reading is a kind of resurrection. It opens a door to everything—imagination, truth, freedom, joy. Today is International Literacy Day, a time to reflect on how precious this ability truly is: the capacity to shape the world through words.

First celebrated by UNESCO in 1967, this day recognizes the power of reading and writing to lift lives. Over 770 million adults around the world still cannot read a simple sentence. Two-thirds of them are women. The digital age has added new forms of literacy—media, financial, technological. And still, the first key remains the same: words.

Thomas Carlyle once observed, “All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is all lying in magic preservation in the pages of books.” To read is to remember. To write is to resist forgetting. A good book carries the voice of its author—like John Milton’s above—preserved forever, glowing with purpose.

Literacy is more than skill. It is dignity. It is power. It is love passed forward. Malala Yousafzai said it best: “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”

Today, honor that change. Visit your library. Read aloud to a child. Write something with your whole heart. Feed the mind. The soul will follow.