Today I paid my first visit (during this particular trip) to Globe’s local library. Libraries are kind of sacred places in my book (har har), and the quaintness of this particular one had me hearkening somewhat back to the main library I frequented as a child–the Southeast Branch of the Torrance Library. The library of countless summer reading programs, piles and piles of paperback novels my mom called “junk books,” slightly inappropriate discoveries, and the stuff that (along with television) fertilized my impressionable youth mind.
After grabbing a few standout titles from the limited selection on their shelves, I asked permission to share a round wooden table with an elderly lady having a field day with a stack of do-it-yourself-type craft books. Being unfamiliar with small-town library etiquette, I took extra precautions to ensure I didn’t offend anyone unnecessarily. She smiled and said something to the tune of “of course” and returned to her reading, leaving me to my own devices.
I began to sift through the books I had picked out to gauge interest level and had a meta moment when I came across this line in Anne Lamott’s latest offering:
“You never knew for sure who would be there, someone you’d been missing or were trying to avoid.”
Cue rabbit trail of thoughts…
I was struck with the immediacy of life, of people and place, in a small town like Globe. Particularly in contrast to the built environment and alternate reality of this highly digitized and regimented “Matrix” world we are all “connected” to yet not quite connected to. Even if I wanted to avoid reality, it would be hard to ignore the lady sitting across from me who interpreted my meditative pauses from reading to be the physical/mental lapses of someone who needed a nap. Or the notion that the random musings of this man at the coffee shop were touching on some very real truths and possibilities for the world.
On the path to (re)discovering and tapping into a grander scheme of connectedness that reaches down and satiates an ache that feels so very primal…
“Love is all around, no need to waste it / You can have the town, why don’t you take it / You’re gonna make it after all”
Hi JD! haha you kind of inspired me to start my own blogging and seeing as how we both like to write, I thought, why not?
hope you’re doing well!
whoo hoo! you are blogging too? are u gonna share??
I put the link on my fb profile. I’m always so excited when I see my friends have blogs haha.