Libraries-- a blast from the past

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.

Enlightenment at the San Francisco Airport

Traveling, and therefore spending a lot of time in airports, gives one plenty of time to observe a cross-section of America. The people watching is prime, and the idle time to contemplate life is plentiful.

On a recent trip to San Francisco, I spent about five hours in the Northwest terminal at San Francisco International Airport. There were very few flights coming and going, and it was rather late in the day. Hence, my people watching opportunities were not as abundant as I was accustomed to.

So I spent the better part of two hours in the terminal's tiny bookstore skimming through magazines and reading the back covers of books for sale. After a few minutes of staring at the book shelf, I started to notice a trend in the titles I was seeing.

These are exact book titles I observed:

"You Staying Young"
"You Can Heal Your Life"
"Stop Whining Start Living"
"Your Best Life Now"
"Go Green, Live Rich"
"50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth and Get Rich Trying"
"A New Earth--Awakening to Your Life's Purpose" (currently Oprah's book club selection)
"Awakening the Entrepreneur Within"
"Become a Better You"
"The 360 Degree Leader"

I found myself wondering, could each of these books really offer something vastly different from the other? Apparently so since some carried the NYT "Best Seller" badge on their jackets. A lot of people are paying a decent sum of money to stay young, heal their lives, start living, live their best life, awaken their life's purpose, awaken their inner entrepreneur, and so on and so forth.

My first instinct was to make fun of these potential snakeoil salesmen trying to make a buck by recycling other people's stories of inspiration. But after mulling it over for a bit, I came to a different conclusion.

People want to be inspired. I know I do. I love e-mail forwards that make me take a few seconds out my work day to think (and I mean really think) or a good story that makes my eyes sting with tears I am trying to hold back.

I remember the way I felt after reading one of my favorite books: "The Alchemist." I was moved to think about what I really want to do in life, or as its author Paulo Coelho would say "follow my personal legend." So maybe someone else's "Stop Whining Start Living" is to them what "The Alchemist" was to me. People want to be inspired, and I see nothing wrong with that.