The Healing Journey

December 4, 2025

A mother’s insight changed her son forever

By Tom Matthews

My mother was an English teacher who read more books in her life than anyone I know. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry and many other genres. She had a voracious appetite for the written word, and she wanted her children to feel the same way about books.

Of course, my older sister (she always was doing “the right thing”) was reading books while still in diapers and she never stopped. Very annoying.

I, on the other hand, resisted my mother Mary Ann’s desire for me to embrace reading, though I can’t explain why. Apparently, I thought playing Wiffle Ball, pretending to be Larry Bird while shooting hoops in the driveway and watching The A-Team were a far better use of my time than reading books. Very stupid.

Then one day I came home from school and found a copy of “Season on the Brink” by sports journalist John Feinstein on my bed. My mom had checked it out of our local library (along with at least five books for herself). The book was published not long after Indiana Head Basketball Coach Bob Knight (in)famously hurled a chair across the court to protest a referee’s call against a Hoosier player. (The 40th anniversary of this unforgettable moment was recently observed.

The chair toss inspired the late John Feinstein to chronicle a season of Indiana basketball and is considered one of the best sports books ever written. I couldn’t put it down, and I haven’t stopped reading since.

My mother knew that we learn, grow and become more effective in our lives and in our work when we read. I’ll always be grateful to her for her inspiration and for taking the time to find that book, which changed my life and set me on the path of being a voracious reader like her.

(Tom Matthews of Trumbull has worked in leadership positions in journalism, marketing and business services. And he loves to read.)

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