On The Importance of Libraries
The internet is not a substitute.
Let me take a moment and state how magnificent I think libraries are. And by extension, bookstores.
In my childhood, my local public library made me love books and libraries. In the summer it was cool. In the winter warm. It was quiet, a shocking contrast to home. It smelled…. Oh it smelled of old books. Even now, when I open an old book, I press my nose in and inhale deep and long and I am 10 years old again, having walked to the Kemp and am trying to discover Hebert, Tolkien, Lewis, Barrie, White and Adams. That library saved me. None of my childhood friends had any interest in books. None of my cousins. And so I had no interest in friends and family. Well, that’s a lie. But thanks to those books, my interest did not exceed my willingness to get up to no good.
Libraries: a pinnacle of humanity.
Humans need more of them. People need to support them. It is why one of the things my family does when we travel is visit libraries. Sometimes they are mundane, sometimes… sometimes you find one in Massachusetts that is 200 years old and probably saw Alcott, Emerson, Hawthorne and Thoreau.
Have I mentioned I love libraries?
And I think the reason more people do not have such a love affair with libraries is the they take time. They are not a drive-through. There is no way to summarize a visit to the library (though bookstores seem to try to do this on some level). To really benefit, you have to spend time there. Discovering. Reading. Sitting and thinking.
And time is a commodity we have less of than ever before.
Working too much and spending far too little time with their children generated a group of unmoored young people Any correction or counsel usually took the form of angry reaction AFTER we had done something wrong. A lot of commanding without a lot of exemplifying. The formula resulted in children determined to pursue selfish desires over the needs of others. A selfish generation. This is why I find truth so appealing: a framework of living that matches the ideals of the heroes I read about in books. As a youth I knew no Paul Atreides, Bilbo Baggins, Aslan, Hazel or Charlotte except in books. But here were truths that contained the guiding principles that could let me aspire to that level of humanity.
Heroes give, villains take, you see.
Support your library. You will become a better human.
Oh, and please please please, for the love of all that is good, remind your friends your family and yourself that there are TWO ‘R’s in libRaRy.
