For the Love of Libraries

 

Then dead souls woke; the thoughts of men
Whose bones were dust revived again;
The cloister's silence found a tongue,
Old prophets spake, old poets sung.

And here, to-day, the dead look down,
The kings of mind again we crown;
We hear the voices lost so long,
The sage's words, the sibyl's song.

Here Greek and Roman find themselves
Alive along these crowded shelves;
And Shakespeare treads again his stage,
And Chaucer paints anew his age.

As if some Pantheon's marbles broke
Their stony trance, and lived and spoke,
Life thrills along the alcoved hall,
The lords of thought await our call!

(from "The Library" by John Greenleaf Whittier)

I will always contend that libraries are magical places. What other place can offer thousands of worlds to explore? Thousands of different eyes to see through. In our world so inundated in tech where everything is about the newest devices and apps are required for everything, I feel myself going the opposite way to the tangible and lasting things that won't run out of battery, won't rely on anything else to work, or won't track our every move. 

My local library just re-opened, after a couple years of construction updating and upgrading. They also added an area that is a local history/cultural museum, which tells the story of our city. I was delighted to visit recently, and I won't be a stranger as I have been over the construction period. I will get back into a routine of going on a regular basis for lunch or just tea in the café (Black & Brew), having a browse on the shelves of the books for sale, and enjoying a wander through the fiction/non-fiction/poetry/mystery/etc shelves for a few reads to check-out. This time, I picked up two Agatha Christie mysteries and a book of Jorge Luis Borges' poems. 

Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality. There are mass emotions which heal the wound; but they destroy the privilege. In them our separate selves are pooled and we sink back into sub-individuality. But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do. 

(C.S. Lewis)

My visit re-ignited my love for libraries, which has always been there and always will be. They are wonder-filled places. You never know what you are going to find. Kind of like a used bookstore. Except it's free. In a time where the costs of everything has risen, and continues to rise, the library is still free. Thousands of books at your fingertips. A place to relax and browse. A place to meet up with others. A place to study and think. A place to warm up during cold days, or cool down during long summer days. A place to greet the books and let a few find their way into your hands.

And now I commend you again to your books. Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books - and without even taking them down from their shelves - they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.

( W.E. Gladstone)

So, welcome the the library. Go check it out and see what grabs you. And enjoy learning amazing things.