Last Thursday on my way home from work, I stopped at the library. I recently joined a book club, and thought I'd save a buck by checking out our latest read from the library. The library in our town is state of the art. Apparently, it recently went through a renovation, and it looks great!
I can honestly say I haven't been in a library since my undergraduate days at Michigan, and even then I was usually there to study--not peruse the aisles of texts. It's interesting how every library--no matter where--has that same smell and the same sense of quiet. You walk in, you whisper, you make small movements, you do what you need to do without all the commotion of everyday living that seems to take over just about anywhere else we are.
I walked around for a while looking at books on shelves and feeling a little like I'd stepped back in time to my childhood when I spent every other week at the library checking out records and books with my mom. I knew exactly where the Braille books were that I liked to pull off the shelf and touch with my fingertips. I knew where the oversized files were that had to be housed in drawers because of their awkward size. I knew exactly where to find Millions of Cats, my all time favorite childhood book. I probably checked it out at least 15 times!
It felt good to be back in a place of order. Many things change--actually most things change in this fast-paced world of ours. And while the library system has also changed in terms of paper to electronic, it's nice to know that for the most part this institution remains unchanged by time.
I kinda like that about the library. I look forward to going back, and hopefully it won't be 10 more years until I do.
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