Libraries -- too much taken for granted

Remember going to the library as a child?  If you did not have a card with which to check out books, the first step was to fill out the form that would convince the librarian you were capable of the responsibility of borrowing books.  Then the librarian looked at you with serious eyes and impressed it upon you again as you took home your first little stack of books to read.

Then it was just books; now it is all variety of media items that you can borrow.  Music, movies and other things from which to be entertained are also available.  All you need is the machine that plays it.  Libraries entertain and they inform.

And they help us stay connected.  I am writing this from a brand new beautiful public library where I am visiting.  I do not even pay taxes here, therefore I will leave a small donation.  This community is a small town where the library carries its weight as a part of its community. Like the residents here, I do not take this privilege for granted.

I am no longer a child who loved to read better than anything.  I am an elder who loves to write because I was a reader -- of borrowed books.  I owned only a few back then.  Now I own a lot of books and have not read all of them, taking for granted they will be there whenever I get the urge.  I do not value them as much, apparently.  But I know that I value the privilege of sitting in this borrowed library, writing what I want to all my readers.  What a universe this keyboard in a library opens up for me.  Too bad I can't borrow a book, too.

Posted via email from Southwest Postings