Eloquent words…about words

The other day I was shopping at Tuttle’s Hallmark and a book caught my eye. 

The eye-catching red book, a part of the (PRODUCT) RED campaign, was entitled: Be Inspi(red): Words of Hope and Courage.  (I think maybe Lisa saw me coming when she bought this for the store.)  Anyway, I had no intention of buying a book when I went into the store.  I went in for a box of thank you cards!

If you aren’t familiar with (RED) here is more info: 

(RED) was created by Bono and Bobby Shriver, Chairman of DATA to raise awareness and money for The Global Fund by teaming up with the world’s most iconic brands to produce (PRODUCT)RED branded products. A percentage of each (PRODUCT)RED product sold is given to The Global Fund. The money helps women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The book is absolutely beautiful, striking in its simplicity.  Well crafted and stunningly designed. There was no way I couldn’t buy it.

When I got home I immediately opened the book and began to read.   The following words greeted me as a way of introduction:

If you ever doubt the power of language, listen more closely. Witness the magic the first time someone whispers “I love you.”

Watch a woman put on headphones, close her eyes, and have her life changed by a lyric.

See a bad moment flipped upside down by a well-timed joke.

Words propel us, empower us make us human…and more than human.

We constantly struggle to say what we mean and mean what we say.

To “wrestle with words and meanings.” That’s what T.S. Eliot calls it.

But as we whisper and shout, stutter and spin, we create order out of the chaos around us. We are built of words, and we live by them, too.

Wow.  What a powerful piece of writing.  I guess it’s safe to say that I agree because I have a fundamental belief in the power of words.   Used for good, words can heal, enlighten, lift, console, educate.  Words truly do inspire. 

Every day this library staff sees someone whose life is in need of “words”.   Every day, our staff makes great effort to help connect that person with just the right words.   It’s an amazing process, sac(red) in its own way.  Last year our library tallied over 185,000 visits from citizens.  Hey, that’s a lot of word searching!

I’d like to share a couple of messages from the book that resonated with me (just a few, so I don’t have to worry about copyright):

Empowe(red)  Dig deep.  Look within.  It’s all there inside you.  Except sometimes…it’s not.  Everybody has days when all the digging deep only turns up mud.  And that’s when you hand over the shovel.  You reach out.  You let somebody give you what you can’t mine for yourself.  We are strongest together, holding hands.          

Remembe(red)  That’s the question.  What do you want to be remembered for?  It’s not really about what you made of your life.  It’s about how you made your life.  How you made the world.  Maybe just a little bit better?  Then you’re doing fine.

Perseve(red) It takes a glacier about a year to move as far as you can walk in a few minutes.  Eventually, it carves out canyons and slaps up mountains.  It permanently changes the world.  Just by keeping at it.  So can you.

I am very mindful of the value of our library’s place in our community.  And that’s why it’s so important to protect and envision the future of our very own treasure trove…of words.

Books still matter

Every summer, without fail, our library is inundated with kids who are participating in our summer reading program. Our program started yesterday and it’s been wildly busy at the library.  It’s a fun time to visit us, you’ll see neat decorations and many excited children.  Youth Services Librarian, Shelly Menzer does an incredible job putting the program together and is ably assisted by her amazing staff members as well as a crew of student volunteers who are second-to-none.

When I was a child, I was thrilled to receive a button that I could pin on my shirt to proclaim my status as a reader.  Kids don’t get as excited about those pins anymore, so the prizes tend toward more “hip” things.  But if you want to know the truth of it, it is still the books that get the kids excited. 

I’m always struck with joy when I see a little child beam about the books he or she has selected.  Hearing teens talk about Harry Potter reminds me of my love affair with the works of Susan Cooper and Zilpha Keatley Snyder.  It probably doesn’t come as a surprise, but I read a lot as a child and teen.  I wasn’t particularly discerning then, I figured if it was in print, it had to be important.  One day my Aunt Loretta came for a visit and found me with a hair dryer in my right hand and a General Motors annual report in my left.   I think her words were something like, “Oh my, Connie, you’ll read anything.”  I think I was about 12 years old at the time. 

I never actually wondered if there was something wrong with me for loving words so much…although, now that I think of it, others certainly may have. (Aunt Loretta, bless her heart, never indicated that she was worried.  My parents encouraged my reading too.)   “Miss Kate”, the children’s librarian at Dwight Foster Public Library at the time, had lit that fire inside me and reassured me along the way by telling me on more than one occasion that reading was indeed a valuable life skill. 

It really is.  You can learn and grow in ways that are unimaginable.  You can be transported anywhere in the world.  You can use your time more productively.  You can simply escape, if that’s what you need to do. 

An intern from the Daily Jefferson County Union newspaper told me today that during our recent tornado warning she finished up the book she was reading.  What a great use of time, tucked away safely in the basement, reading a book!

If you hear someone predict the death of the book, be suspicious.  It’s true that information is made more accessible if it is online (assuming access to the Internet.)  I couldn’t agree more that SOME things are better produced electronically.  But a book is still a cheap, portable way to share a story.  Add great illustrations and a comfy lap and a you have the recipe for a life-long memory. 

When I think of it, a hair dryer in the right hand and a book in the left still works for me. (Only one electrical cord to worry about!)  These days, however, I’m not likely to be found reading the General Motors annual report while drying my hair.  With access to millions of titles via our library’s SHARE catalog, it’s easy to find something a bit more in entertaining and enlightening. 

At the end of the day, as a public library we are all about providing access…whatever the format.  But I do expect books will long have a prominent place on our shelves.  As we get set to plan our expanded library, you can know that we do have a deep commitment to books.   At the library we see, every day, the way people in Fort Atkinson feel about books.  STILL.