Books like The Little Engine That Could

When I was seven, my Mom used to read to us from this little book. It was one of many books scattered atop our bright red plastic-‘n-steel tabletop, and she was cataloguing them for her new Public Library!It was a bright red-letter year for us kids, too, that year - a real Book Bonanza.And THIS was the way she encouraged stick-to-it-iveness in us lazy, dozy kids - with books like this: ‘I THINK I can! I THINK I can!’ Just like the relentless chugging of a pint-sized locomotive!Well, I KNEW about steam locomotives in those days. Dad used to take me down to the central Roundhouse back then to watch ‘em. The huge wheel would turn the engine around 180 degrees so it could face back out towards the station - and start a new trip...Well, THIS little locomotive thought it could make its trip if it told itself it COULD do it hard enough.And, when it got really chugging away, Mom would read, ‘I KNOW I can! I KNOW I can!’ AND the little locomotive was, of course, ultimately successful.But that was my mom for you! I remember one night at that same kitchen table four years later, when she was studying for her finals prior to receiving her Master’s Degree in Library Science - with an excruciating migraine.She made like the little engine again, only THIS TIME she was SINGING, in spite of her pain:ONE MORE RIVERAND THAT’S THE RIVER JORDAN!ONE MORE RIVERAND THAT’S THE RIVER TO CROSS!Because she KNEW she could make it.The day she received her diploma was a bright, warm spring day in Montréal.The proud dignitaries and even prouder McGill graduates were there in full regalia.But perhaps proudest of all, decked out in our Sunday best, were my Dad and us three little kids...For our Mom had done it - just like she had promised!