Here's a quote that has been playing around in my head of late:

"Much of my unassisted self...I struggled through the alphabet as if it had been a bramble-bush; getting considerably worried and scratched by every letter. After that, I fell among those thieves, the nine figures, who seemed every evening to do something new to disguise themselves and baffle recognition."

--Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

This passage appears at the front of Howard Engel's book, The Man Who Forgot How to Read. For those that do not know of him he is a Canadian crime novelist who one morning woke up, grabbed his morning paper only to discover the letters no longer held any meaning. He had suffered a stroke and was left with alexia sine agraphia, a rare condition that has left him still able to write but unable to read. The Man Who Forgot How to Read is his memoir although you might think it would be an incredibly sad read it was utterly fascinating.

I will now leave you with a piece that I have always found very moving.

So how many of you have been trying to pawn off the extra Halloween candy?