There’s powerful magic in 26 simple shapes arranged to form
patterns on a piece of paper.
Those 26 shapes can build nations and bring down tyrannies.
There’s powerful magic in 26 simple shapes arranged to form patterns on a piece of paper.
Those 26 shapes can build nations and bring down tyrannies.
Those 26 shapes can let you hear the inspiring voices of people whose bones crumbled into powder centuries ago.
Those 26 shapes can spark powerful emotions in your heart as well as ignite transformational ideas in your head.
Those 26 shapes can unlock doors that open up to wonderful worlds of the imagination.
Those 26 shapes are, of course, the 26 letters of the alphabet.
Learning the ABCs is such an important rite of childhood. It’s such a personal experience for kids that, once they memorize them, children refer to those 26 letters as “my” ABCs.
And once we get the alphabet etched into our brains, our universe expands exponentially. For the rest of our lives, the letters of the ABCs are the keys to unlocking treasure troves of golden knowledge.
In my nursery years, my mom and dad would often read to me from two slim books that helped me get a firm grasp on this magic code. I still keep them on my den’s bookshelf. As I write this column (conveying to you my thoughts via the famous 26 shapes), I now browse through these primers and remember the thrilling adventure of learning “my” ABCs.
“Up In The Attic: A Story ABC” is a Little Golden Book about a boy named Ted and his adventurous puppy dog. Armed with a flashlight, they climb up the stairs to their home’s attic and discover various items conveniently arranged in alphabetical order.
“This is an ATTIC, old and gray/ Where hundreds of things are tucked away,” the story begins.
My other ABC primer was “Fun with ABC and 123.” It’s an alphabet and counting book in rhyme.
The page for the letter “M” poetically reads: “At MIDNIGHT when the wind is high, a MILLION stars are in the sky. A MOON-faced MAN goes sailing
by. He smiles at me and winks his eye.”
More than three decades later, I’m still amazed at how the ABCs so vibrantly impact our world and our lives. It’s astonishing pondering the way enchanted squiggles of ink on paper can record the sounds of words. Those sounds drawn on paper create pictures in the mind’s eye.
Our alphabet’s history is a tale of wondrous evolution. It begins about 3,600 years ago on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. For trade purposes and to document government records, a group of people known as the Canaanites had the genius to develop 22 letters known as the “North Semitic” alphabet. It was made of consonants placed in a set order and given names to allow them to be remembered easily.
The Phoenicians took the Canaanite innovation and, through their extensive sea trade routes, spread the system widely. Around 1000 BC, the early Greeks added characters for vowel sounds and introduced the alphabet to various European people including the Etruscans.
Via the Etruscans, the alphabet passed to the Romans. Our modern eyes viewing monuments of the classical world of Rome can easily hear that ancient people’s words through an alphabet which so closely resembles ours.
Finally in the Middle Ages, the letters “J,” “U,” and “W” were added – giving us all 26 letters found virtually everywhere in our Information Age world.
Those squiggles on paper create magic in the mind. I really believe that.
Shortly after learning how to decipher the 26 letters in the act of reading, I discovered the world of books. Around the age of six or seven, I read the children’s story “Charlotte’s Web.” At the end of the book, author E.B. White’s words hit my emotions hard when the famous spider dies. I felt the tragic loss of a friend. Tears filled my eyes and I ran to my mom for comfort, crying, “Charlotte’s dead. Charlotte’s dead.”
Early on, I also found out how some people fear those 26 letters if arranged in a certain order. In sixth grade at Calvary Christian School in Hollister, I read James Michener’s novel “Tales of the South Pacific.” At that time, I made a habit of recording on the back of a notebook a list of the books I’d finished reading. One of the school’s pastors found the notebook and read my list. I got a severe scolding for having read Michener’s book. I found out it contained words the pastor didn’t approve of, so he threatened me with detention if I ever dared read another book not permitted by the school’s authorities.
The pastor’s threat terrified me back then. It terrifies me still that a person would dare punish a child for reading a novel – a Pulitzer Prize-winning one at that.
Sadly, history contains many examples of times when those with power feel threatened by the arrangement of the 26 letters of the alphabet.
The Church threatened Galileo’s life and kept him under house arrest because his words suggested the Earth orbited the sun – rather than the Biblically authorized viewpoint of the sun orbiting our home planet.
Hitler had books and publications burned that held ideas threatening his own power.
Books are still incinerated in bonfires today.
Our modern world could not exist without the ABCs. Sometimes we feel deluged by them, finding them everywhere. But they are important to our social survival.
Magazines, books, love letters, e-mail, junk mail, Internet Web sites, breakfast cereal boxes – even this newspaper you are now reading – all owe their existence to the powerful magic contained within 26 simple shapes.
