I'm nodding vigorously in the first paragraph about wanting to see people who are skilled at things. In my friend's original remark, she mentioned being in plays as opposed to seeing them, and I was thinking, being in a play can be very very fun, but it's **very different** from seeing a play--wanting to see a play, wanting to lose yourself in a story being performed in front of you--is different from wanting to work hard to become a character and present a story to others. And yes: if you're watching a play, while you may feel affectionate toward, say, a performance by the third-grade class, you can be completely spirited away by a really good professional theater group.

And I had never thought about what you say in the second paragraph, but YES! How much more you can talk about when you're able to hear about faraway people/places/habits/happening. And being able to read really does open up not only the whole world, but all of history ... or anyway, all of history that's written down.