In the opening chapters of Ernest J. Gaines’ coming of age novel, “A Lesson Before Dying,” two men from two different worlds are faced with individual crises of identity. Their stories — and many of the elements contained in the novel, set in 1940s Louisiana — may play out on pages set in a different era and a vastly different time, but the unifying elements far outweigh the contrasts.

Perhaps that’s why local organizers selected the Gaines novel as Milledgeville and Baldwin County’s first Big Read.

Beginning today at noon in the Magnolia Ballroom on the Georgia College & State University campus, local readers and self-professed non-readers alike will delve into the pages of “A Lesson Before Dying,” a novel whose timeless themes of race, social class, education and mortality are certainly applicable and relevant even today.

The goal of the Big Read program, spearheaded by the National Endowment for the Arts, is to bring to light the importance of literacy in American culture. This month, all of Baldwin County is encouraged to read and take part in the local Big Read events.

We applaud the efforts of those who have worked since last spring to organize this event. Local partners for this project include Andalusia, the Twin Lakes Library System, Baldwin Citizen Advocacy, the Bill Ireland Youth Detention Center, Men’s State Prison, Allen’s Market, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Learning in Retirement and Art as an Agent for Change.

With a month’s worth of programs and activities planned throughout the area that focus on this novel and exploring its themes, local residents — from all backgrounds and reading levels — would be missing a worthwhile cultural experience by not taking part. Other similar Big Read events will kick off this month in communities all over the country.

We encourage everyone who can to attend today’s noon kickoff. Those who can’t make it, or those who wish to find out more, are encouraged to visit www.neabigread.org to find the schedule of events for our area, all of which focus on “A Lesson Before Dying” and its themes.

And those who do attend any of these events are also encouraged to take part in the community dialogue by asking questions and becoming involved in any of the discussions. Residents can even start their own reading groups to explore the novel.

The goal is to cultivate reading into our everyday lives, and foster cultural growth within our community. If we can all share in the common goal of reading from the same book at the same time, imagine what else we can accomplish when we all divert our focus to other goals.

By doing so, we could certainly come closer to resolving a number of issues that plague us, and work more easily at finding concrete solutions — by doing it together.

And, as we all turn from the same pages, we may soon discover that our differences may not be as vast and as far-reaching as they on the surface seem.