Day 147f: Nourishment in Niota … (September 23, 2019)
And then I made it to the tiny hamlet of Niota, home to one of the cutest (if not the cutest) libraries in the world. Local librarian Emily was exceptionally kind to me therein; a kindness that I soaked up while resting there – and a kindness that I took along with me as I set back out onto The Road …
“Whenever I come across a library of any size of form, I often think of the one established by Plotina in Trajan’s Forum, it with its noble inscription placed by her order over its primary door: Herein lies a dispensary to the Soul … Ah, how he did love books – the look of them, the smell of them, the sweet weight of them in his arms. Most of all, he loved the feeling he got every time he picked one up. It was the feeling of holding an entire Universe in his hands … Libraries were filled with books, and books, full of ideas – the latter without question being the most powerful of all weapons … And so it was that a library, no mater how humble or hidden, was ever a sacred gateway. Once could pass through it and leave one’s own world behind; journey through time and space, and – at least for a time – escape the confines of one’s own place or circumstance. Each of those who are readers gets to live through a multiplicity of eras; gets to tiptoe through a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent, and parallel moments.” ~ inspired by Marguerite Yourcenar, Jennifer Donnelly, Sarah Mass, Jorge L. Borge & Anthony Doerr
“To listen – that’s the part of the librarian’s job that everyone seems to forget. To listen; to listen to the books, to listen to the patrons; even to listen to one’s enemies (even when they’re maddest). That is when a librarian knows he or she is doing it right. A librarian’s job is to listen. A library’s job is to be a place where the hopeless can feel seen and heard as well; a place where the downtrodden too can find rest & solace … It was churches that gave such sanctuary, in earlier times. Haven to the unwanted, the unloved, and even criminals. And the latter, whether they repented or not. These days the churches are all locked up tight most days, and so our libraries have become our cities’ sanctuaries.” ~ inspired by A.J. Hackwith
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