I got so overheated yesterday at work, I was like a steamed pudding. Weirdly, I didn't feel hot but gradually became aware I was flushed. I stuck my head under a cold water tap, then went and sat in the a/c break room.
The donations area never stays cool because the garage doors open to accept donations (and [of course] we have nothing to block the air, such as the hanging, plastic strips you see at grocery stores).
bink & Maura picked me up after work, to go to dinner at a friend's house. When I got there, the friend asked if I'd like to take a shower.
She is a wise woman.
She also has a cool and clean and clear aesthetic---being in her calm house was a balm after the bonkers chaos, dirt, and heat of my workplace.
It would be hard to replicate in my small apartment, but I came home determined to make my place calmer––by clearing out more things and, possibly, painting the walls a neutral color.
Yesterday I had chatted with a customer about how it's good to keep books moving. Circulation is life for books.
That also inspired me to move along more of my books and things.
Rather than donate my books to the store, this summer I've been putting them in Little Free Libraries--partly in payback for having taken books from LFL in rich neighborhoods to sell at the thrift BOOK's store, but also I want to support the totally free exchange of books.
[Full Disclosure: It's also so much easier and faster than biking them to work.]
I put a few books in the Little Free Library on my way to the coffee shop this morning:
I also realize I like photographs of books---I don't need the book itself so much as a reminder that it's been part of my life.
This morning I did a quick cull on the way to the coffee shop. My friend Barrett (d. 2011) had given me her copy of If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland (1938). It's way too purple for me, and I don't ever want to read it again. Flipping through it, I saw Barrett had underlined just this passage--about writing, or "any other creative power" teaching you to be free, so I photographed it--fitting for the Fourth of July.
This is what Barrett underlined:
At the coffee shop. I'm leaving the book on their "free books" shelf.
Do I believe that writing will teach you freedom?
Not necessarily!
Dictators seem to be prolific writers, and they use writing to serve self-delusion and political oppression, not liberation. But they also limit what other people can write and read, which reflects that words can work like water to crack things open.
From a book review in the New Replublic, "Why Dicators Write"
The donations area never stays cool because the garage doors open to accept donations (and [of course] we have nothing to block the air, such as the hanging, plastic strips you see at grocery stores).
bink & Maura picked me up after work, to go to dinner at a friend's house. When I got there, the friend asked if I'd like to take a shower.
She is a wise woman.
She also has a cool and clean and clear aesthetic---being in her calm house was a balm after the bonkers chaos, dirt, and heat of my workplace.
It would be hard to replicate in my small apartment, but I came home determined to make my place calmer––by clearing out more things and, possibly, painting the walls a neutral color.
Yesterday I had chatted with a customer about how it's good to keep books moving. Circulation is life for books.
That also inspired me to move along more of my books and things.
Rather than donate my books to the store, this summer I've been putting them in Little Free Libraries--partly in payback for having taken books from LFL in rich neighborhoods to sell at the thrift BOOK's store, but also I want to support the totally free exchange of books.
[Full Disclosure: It's also so much easier and faster than biking them to work.]
I put a few books in the Little Free Library on my way to the coffee shop this morning:
I also realize I like photographs of books---I don't need the book itself so much as a reminder that it's been part of my life.
This morning I did a quick cull on the way to the coffee shop. My friend Barrett (d. 2011) had given me her copy of If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland (1938). It's way too purple for me, and I don't ever want to read it again. Flipping through it, I saw Barrett had underlined just this passage--about writing, or "any other creative power" teaching you to be free, so I photographed it--fitting for the Fourth of July.
This is what Barrett underlined:
Do I believe that writing will teach you freedom?
Not necessarily!
Dictators seem to be prolific writers, and they use writing to serve self-delusion and political oppression, not liberation. But they also limit what other people can write and read, which reflects that words can work like water to crack things open.
From a book review in the New Replublic, "Why Dicators Write"
In one of the more central reminders The Infernal Library has to offer for these times, Kalder concludes:I guess I'd say self-expression is part of self-knowledge––and, hence, at least the possibly of liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
“Let us not delude ourselves into thinking that it is only the masterful expression of great truths that grants a book access to the pantheon of the immortals; the violent and shameless expression of hatred also endures.”
Did you make it through A Time of Gifts? I’ve yet to feel it necessary to go on to the next volume, though I like his short book about visiting monasteries.
ReplyDeleteMICHAEL: I admit, I did not make it through the first few pages...
ReplyDeleteBut I always pick up NYRB books, just in case.