3for Library Week

It has been too long since my last post. I've been to the main branch of the Free Library in Philadelphia three times this week:

• Monday morning on my way home from Angela's I returned two books on CD and paid the accompanying $8.75 in late fees. I walked out with a 23 cd unabridged edition of Ben Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson. Disc 3 puts him in his early 20's and one can see the greatness he will achieve over his many decades to come. I'm especially looking forward to his work with libraries and how his legacy enabled and influenced the Free Library.
• Thursday evening Angela and I went to hear Khaled Hosseni speak and read from his new book A Thousand Splendid Sons. This is Hosseni's follow-up to his first novel The Kite Runner. He was very humble and appreciative of his success, quick-witted and quite thoughtful. A couple times he spoke of how people had read The Kite Runner and asked him how they could get involved, whre they could donate money to, etc., in matters related to Afghanistan or more recently women in Afghanistan (this book's subject) or Refugees (he's a global ambassador for UNHCR). And he is very reluctant to give people recommendations. I respect that he doesn't feel like he has the answers and that he hopes people will find their own way, but I think that's a bit of a cop out and if literally thousands of people are asking for his advice, he should at least offer some suggestions.
  
• Saturday afternoon I went to a lecture on great gardens in the greater Philadelphia area. I, like everyone in the audience, was already familiar with Longwood Gardens, but I was not familiar with Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA, Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, or Nemours Mansions and Gardens in Wilmington, DE.
• After the lecture I ventured to the 2nd floor of the library for the first time and skimmed a couple books that caught my attention. The first was about sex and architecture. How men have been building societies for a long time and men and women create differently. Men create buildings of power and fortification and often phallic looking buildings. Since women have been left out of positions of power for basically ever, their instinctual building and creative impulses of broader inclusivity and warmth might be cornerstones inside the home, but not in constructions.
  
• That book got me thinking about women in a different way. Driving home from DC last weekend, Angela and I played the Categories game. I chose living male actors of the screen. Back and forth we named actors and though we exhausted our knowledge at that time, since we have been adding new names to the list. For example, today I was reminded of Greg Kinnear, Cuba Gooding, Jr. (super small role in Coming to America when he was a teenager) and Aidan Quinn. But had the category been living female actors of the screen, I am sure that that game would have ended earlier. As I said earlier about women being left out of society and, especially leadership roles, so is the case in movies - as movies are the stories of life. I'm trying to think about movies that I've seen lately, and almost all are dominated by men and the female role is largely as a seductress/wife/romantic interest. I could argue that the lack of female leading roles is Hollywood representing society. As women continue to be oppressed, though a bit more subtly these days, film is merely representing a world still dominated by men. But that's mostly a load of crap. The mesmerizing grasp that Hollywood has on not only our culture, but a global culture too, contributes to the objectification and degradation of women. I just watched Legends of the Fall on Demand. Granted it takes place in Montana in the early 1900's, but there are 3 leading male roles to one female lead. Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Brad Pitt to Julia Ormond. Or earlier today I watched Coming to America. Here my argument is made very easily as Akeem, the prince of Zumunda, comes to America, to Queens, to seek his bride.
  
• I also skimmed through a book on body painting. It's a topic I have thought about more of recent past, especially now that I have a tatoo. I'd like to have some body art or henna tattoos done soon. Our bodies are works of art, inside and out, and I'd like to experience myself a little more. Also, the tradition of body art is thousands of years old. While body art and tattooing are of a branding and humiliating nature for my heritage (numbered tattoos in the Holocaust and previously other ways to make the mark of a Jew), I like to think of myself as part of a tradition of mankind that is much older than a few hundred years and much more connected to the people of the Earth - current and past.
  

The Colletteum

I grew and learned a lot in the decade of my 20's - from which I just passed. I started working at the ACLU when I was 24 I met and befriended some extraordinary people there, two of whom were well into their 70's. Judy Bellin and Robert Vandivier (Van). I feel fortunate to have learned that there is no age limit on friendship.

I am thinking about my more experienced friends because last night I reminisced about Wallace Collett. I was at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights's Hubert Humphrey Awards Dinner. I sat next to Joe Volk who is the Executive Director of the Friends Committee on National Legislation. I had met and worked with Joe a little in 1999 and 2000 while working at the Religious Action Center. Quick aside, I was a little worried that I wouldn't know anyone among the 1000 people at last night's awards dinner. But within 2 minutes of arriving I met two former colleagues from that Religious Action Center job and also saw David Saperstein, who has run the RAC for over 30 years and is a past Hubert Humphrey awardee himself.

Back to sitting next to Joe. After doing some of the DC networking talk about our jobs thing, we realized that we had a very good in friend in common. That good friend, who unfortunately passed away last year, is Wallace Collett.

I met Wallace in October 2005 on the campus of Bryn Mawr College. I'm in the social work masters program there and it being Fall Break I was spending a little time on main campus doing some research. I was walking through the beautiful campus towards my car when Wallace, accompanied by one of his daughters, called out to me. He thought he recognized me but it was our first meeting. I talked to the two of them for a few minutes and before we parted ways I asked if I could have his number and call him sometime. He obliged and I spent some very nice afternoons at his lovely home around the corner from Bryn Mawr.

One of my favorite rooms in his house and favorite rooms period is called The Colleteum. It is his wife Stella's study. Stella is an archaelogist and a professor and has been teaching at Bryn Mawr for some years. Her study is a lofted room with at least 15 foot high ceilings and floor to ceiling mahogany wood bookshelves around the perimeter of the room. As planned, it has the purpose of an ancient reading room and given my newfound passion for and exploration of libraries, it is nice to write about this library.

Wallace and I spent our time in other rooms of the house talking, reading poetry and mostly him sharing his life with me. Wallace is from Ohio and a lifelong Quaker. He was a very successful businessman, artist, poet and activist. He served on the board of the American Friends Service Committee and introduced me to the idea of diverting my tax dollars away from all things related to the miltary.

I've been thinking about Wallace a bit lately. I was at a Quaker Meeting house on the Jersey shore about 2 months ago to talk about the death penalty and happened upon a book their in which Wallace wrote the introduction. The book was on conscientious objecting and that weekend was actually the weekend I was submitting my taxes. While it didn't work out this year to divert my taxes away from the military, it is certainly on my mind and I hope to look into it further.

So last night with Joe, I got to reminisce about the aforementioned and much more. Wallace wrote a couple books late in life (I mean between 85 and 90). One is a collection of some of his poems and another recounts his experience as a target of McCarthyism while working for the City of Cinncinnati. Speaking of Cinncinnati, Joe informed me that many years ago the Cinncinnati train station was on the verge of being sold/demolished/etc., and Wallace played a role in saving that beautiful building which is now the home of the Cinncinnati Museum.

I don't have favorite Collett poems, but hear are some I enjoy.

Aspects of Wisdom

wisdom
is the fusion of
the intellect
with
the ineffable spirit

wisdom
is both
silent
and
articulate

wisdom
proclaimed
is
suspect

wisdom
blends
the present
into
the future

August 1 - 15, 1981


The Beginning (read at the wedding of grandchildren or great-grandchildren)

there never was a Beginning
an island emerging above waves of the void

there never was a Beginning of Time
a fracturing of eternity into moments and aeons

Beginning is another of our earth terms
an improvisation for our lack of understanding

a thousand years ago
men drew maps of a flat square world
and showed thereon the edge of the earth
a sheer precipice dropping into nothingness

then Magellan voyaged westward
moved beyond the map's steep edge
found that straighness is a circle
that the voyage returns to the home port

as we explore farther into the before
the phantasm of Beginning retreats

we sail beyond the myth's steep edge
and follow the great circle route of Creation

and come to understand the past holds no Beginning
the only beginning is Now

November 15, 1983
Also called "There Never was a Beginning," begun as early as 1951

My 4-Legged Friends

I've been toying with the idea of getting a pet for a few months but am holding off b/c I travel too much. Although I'm confident about this decision - though not happy with it - spending time with Jonathan and Shannon's cat Jasmine and Sari and Aaron's dog Oro have made this decision more difficult.

Check out these adorable creatures!

Another actor with little range

I'm watching a classic. Dazed and Confused. This was on a lot in college. Natural Born Killers too.

Adam Goldberg gets his ass kicked. He should after his cheeseball line of "you know how I've always wanted to go to law school to be an ACLU lawyer." Comendable goals, especially as I sit on my couch wearing my ACLU t-shirt (nice coincidence), but Goldberg should get his ass kicked for all his impish roles. He had an appearance in last week's Entourage and didn't step out of character.

When there's time to kill, what do I do?

Class ended at 7:45 and my date wasn't until 8:30 (both in Bryn Mawr) and I wracked my brain thinking of something to do. Duh! Go to the library. I did.

It was my first trip to the Ludington Library which is one of 7 libraries that comprise the Lower Merion Library System. A banner hung over the check out area indicating its stature among the top 20 libraries in the country. Check this ranking of library systems. Ohio has a couple entries in the top 10 and as luck would have it, Ms. 8:30pm was from Cleveland. Coincidence or Fate???

It was very spacious, lots of people and lots of rooms. So really lots of libraries :) Check the URL if you didn't initially smile with the emoticon.

Since I wasn't a library member, I couldn't access the computer with Internet access (wanted to double check the online profile of the girl I was about to meet for the first time), so instead I used an open computer to search the catalog. I first looked at Joan Didion's books b/c the book club Jackie Zavitz and I are resurrecting from our DC days has Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking as its first book. After scrolling through her works and some corresponding reviews, I looked up her, John Dunne. He is the subject of The Year of Magical Thinking and a prolific author himself. Could be neat to read a book of his after this one, especially since this book is unfortunately about his sudden death and Didion's ensuing grief. The Red, White and Blue looks interesting.

8:30 came and I went on my date. Come sunday night I'll go on date #2...

city living

I was tired all day. Went to sleep late and didn't sleep enough. I pushed myself to a run around 7:30pm and had a great few hours since. I was a little sluggish throughout, but being tired doesn't mean sit on the couch and watch mindless TV.

Like most jogs I started out with no destination in mind and ended up in South Philly. On my way back, I heard the Star Spangled Banner and stumbled upon a full orchestra performing in a parking lot/park behind the Mummers Museum. Very South Philly crowd...I was reminded that I live in a thriving city that has cool stuff going on all the time and that Philly is very much a city of neighborhoods and this seemed very much like a South Philly or more specifically a Pennsport gathering.

Threw together some dinner (cooked brown rice for the first time. cooking rice altogether is only a little less new, but brown rice is healthier and I'm on a bit of a healthy kick). Dinner was more than brown rice, but you don't care what I ate.

I felt a little full after dinner and thought of taking a walk. It was about 9:30pm and I thought I'd walk to the Ritz Theaters and turn a walk into a movie. Fracture had recently been recommended and was playing at the United Artist a little south of me. I rode my bike, but as I unchained my bike which I lock against the fence in my backyard/courtyard I started chatting with my neighbor who shares this fence. He was outside all day and playing music and I told him how much I enjoyed listening to Carmina Burana off his stereo. We chatted a little and now I know one of my many neighbors a little. He's an artist and has an opening with other artists on Sunday and maybe I'll go. I really like when life just opens doors organically.

So I saw Fracture, which was quite good and as I walked out I saw a big poster for Spiderman 3 and saw that opening day was tomorrow/now today, May 4th. Then I understood why Spiderman 3 had an 11:59pm showtime listing and then I saw lots of people coming into the movie theater. The place was so much more crowded at midnight than when I got there at 10pm. Hats off to folks for making a later night of a Thursday and taking in some entertainment, but rushing to the theater to see Spiderman 3. I watched 1 and 2. They were okay, but I don't feel any need to see it ASAP. The special effects are so good that seeing on the big screen is highly favorable though. Maybe my Spiderman bias has to do with the actors. I see nothing special in either of the stars Tobey Maguire or Kirsten Dunst. Spiderman 2 was cool mostly b/c of Alfred Molina's character and acting.

Yell Fire

Earlier this week, separated by only a few hours and a few miles, fires raged in 2 historic Washington, DC locales: Eastern Market and Georgetown Library. Fortunately nobody was hurt, but the damage is serious and there are certainly effects on the community. I lived in Georgetown for 2 years and have spend some time at that Library. My most recent memory is watching the July 4th fireworks my last summer in DC from the park right behind the library. Since the library is on the top of a serious hill, the view into the city and to see the fireworks was ideal.

While the Georgetown Library certainly had more resources than many other libraries in the DC system, no matter how rich your patrons are or how nice the converted mansion is in which the books reside, when you have a fire and don't have a sprinkler system, things end badly.