Cleaners here so I'm out from underfoot, at the library after a couple of errands. So great to be able to come inside. This will be wonderful in cold weather.
Before I landed, I took a walk around the square in the sunshine, and could hear every word, all over the square, this man was bellowing into his phone, as he walked back and forth.
He literally never took a break, so whoever was at the other end never got a word in. It was not a recording for a lecture, just chat. His voice certainly carried.
Here's where I am now.
There are three floors, but the third is the children's department, so it's not as obvious from down here, and the up elevator stops one floor down, security. Coming down it goes all the way. You can override to get up the last floor, if stairs are a problem. The idea is that you are observed as you come up the last flight, by the children's librarian's desk. So known hinky characters can't just stroll in.
On the half wall up there are engraved quotations on the glass from favorite books suggested by various involved folks. Mine is the first sentence of a Barbara Pym novel
In the gallery there's a photography exhibit about the before times, with a question whether these casual scenes will return.
I've included the few with women featured. It's testosterone heavy. It may be that women avoided pictures, not necessarily the photographer's choice.
The reason the images are sideways on and a bit distorted is the reflections on the glass, best I could do.
And I wonder if "will those carefree times return?" is the right question. Once the world has changed, there's really no going back. I think there's living in the new normal, while remembering the past.
"Carefree times"? Really? When did that happen? I must have blinked and missed it. For some of us the times of quarantine were far more carefree as we had all the reason in the world to stay in and shelter. I felt so guilty, feeling that way and yet, I understand why I did.
ReplyDeleteStill, being able to go a library is always, always a good thing.
I agree with you on this. I was so happy to be home legitimately, no visiting, no having obligations other than vital medical ones. We're a different tribe from the people who look back with nostalgia on street fairs, parties, restaurants, all that. But the quotation was from the photographer, who is evidently of the other persuasion.
DeleteThe library is always a good place to pass a bit of time when needed!
ReplyDeleteIve been in them in several countries and always found that sense of home. Like minded people, I suppose.
DeleteI agree we are living in interesting new times. Restaurant workers are resigning in droves! How interesting.
ReplyDeleteConsidering their job conditions, not too surprising.
DeleteYou have a beautiful library. I love the "feel" of spending time in a library. I agree with you that the world has changed too much and we will never go back. The pandemic slowed things down for a bit, but overall the world moves too fast now to go back to anything it seems.
ReplyDeleteWe have all lived through wars, economic ups and downs, strange (and sometimes strained) relationships, adventures that often required stitches and casts, and we've survived to look back at them as just that. Survivors. I don't think this is the new normal, it's just the next step. It will take time to figure out if it's a step forward or back.
ReplyDeleteI have little fondness (except in spurts) for the "past' since so much of it was about learning to walk, run, and swim as needed. And it's good to remember the good parts but necessary to remember the bad stuff, so we don't put our hand in the metaphorical food chopper again...
And street fairs, dances, graduations, even parties, and just little blips on the radar. I kinda feel sorry for people who live only for the high points, it seems like they miss a lot that way.
As for interesting, i find the idea of nurses who are anti vaxxers is an amazing combination, like atheist priests or color blind painters...our most exciting adventure this year was going to McDonald's (whoopy) and eating in the car, while a mini tornado swooped down across the state. In a half hour the entire state was without electricity. Now, that's interesting. =)
Oddly enough I do know a color blind artist! He sticks to the gray scale largely, does cartooning and zines. When he crochets his colors are,um, uncoordinated. We do seem yo be faced with more paradox than ever, or maybe the pandemic has thrown them into higher relief.
DeleteEvery day is the new normal, was my meaning. Constant change, always forward movement, no going back.
thinking about your color blind artist: I can see why his colors are 'off' when he crochets: you have to know what red looks like, and what blue is, before you can use them at all as color. That's fascinating, tbough. Like being a chef who has no sense of smell...
DeleteNice library. Good times are proof we can create them, again.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad we are able to go back to the library once again - I don't know what we'd do without them. I was surprised to see photos of yours though because I thought they'd passed down a rule that pictures aren't allowed?
ReplyDeleteAnd the phone bellower - we have one next door who likes to sit on the balcony on his phone and often has it on speaker so we can hear the entire conversation. We try our best not to eavesdrop but it's hard not to hear things we know we shouldn't. I often just get up and come inside until he's done.
The no pic library is in a different county, different library system. But I did break the rule at the knitting group, in that county.. Abetted by the librarian, whose knitting was in the picture.
Deleteeventually the new normal becomes the carefree times. the virus will eventually be beat or beat down to be just another seasonal thing like the flu I suppose. but you know change is the essential principle of life. although life for humans didn't really change for thousands of years until the industrial revolution. and then pow, change after change after change.
ReplyDeleteI think the various European and American revolutions, the plague followed by the burning and rebuilding of London, the invention of the printing press, the Renaissance,1066, there are tons of pivot points of change. They did affect everyday life, long before the industrial revolution. Having a new language forced on people was a massive change. New foods introduced. Invasion. War. I think there's always been upheaval and change for the general population really.
ReplyDelete