Words on Words
or
The Library's Inspiration
My computer sits in front of the left side of our bookcase which is a built-in, 9 feet wide and about 7 feet high. It's pretty much filled with books along with a smattering of various non-book items. The majority of the books, actually the vast majority, have been on these shelves for years (and more years for many others)... an endless supply of words bound and shelved like a old bookstore in a back alley, in the basement of a four story red brick building built at the turn of the 20th century. Some of these volumes may even have that old, musty smell of a long and dark trunk life like many of my early copies of Rolling Stone magazine when it was a newspaper folded in half and mailed causing the fraying of the edges, like every Rolling Stone magazine from that era has always appeared to anyone who has ever seen one.or
The Library's Inspiration
Smack in front of me, directly behind the monitor, there are mostly books that are SooZen's... books dealing with nature and animals, one of the oldest in her collection is a book called "Horses" by Paul Hamlyn, first published in 1962 with a second impression in 1963. That's the one she has. Next to that volume is "The Whole Horse Catalog", Steven D. Price, Ed.. SooZen has had 4 horses, her first when she was 8 years old. Texas Dandy was the horse's name, given by the original owner. Her last horse was London, (London Bay), when she was around 16-17 years old. She still loves horses to this day.
SooZen also loves animals, all animals. She loves watching shows about animals and will choose those shows over any other. Other volumes in this section of the shelves are : 'The Year of the Koala", "The Buffalo", "Among the Elephants", "Bears", "Tiger", "A Complete Guide to Monkeys, Apes and other Primates"... as examples of her interests. They vary.
"Yanoama: The Narrative of a White Girl Kidnapped bt Amazonian Indians" as told to Ettore Biocca is within the books. "The New Cat Handbook" is in there along with "Over the Rainbow" - Tales of Fantasy and Imagination. We both have varied interests as shown by perusing our library... different times, different interests.
I had a real passion for cacti and succulents at one point in my life. I have a pretty decent collection of books that reflect that love. It was spurned on by our collective interest in houseplants. Do you remember houseplant wave that swept over the country in the mid-1970's? If you do, you're not so young. I think that was the era where magazines and books dedicated to houseplants were available in all bookstores. Our collection even includes several volumes on that topic.
There was a time back in 1977, '78 maybe, when a friend of ours, a woman, began a little home business putting houseplants in businesses and maintaining them on a regular schedule. It was a decent business that grew a bit to hire one extra person and then one more. Her husband and her decided to push it up.. have a little in-town business that sold houseplants and accessories, etc... general potting supplies and pre-mixed soils along with a nice selection of pots and tools. They called the business "Magic Garden"... nicely done inside with used lumber facing on the walls and a 'polite rustic-ness' that appealed to many.
Their business soon developed into putting in a greenhouse in their spacious backyard... a pretty large operation. I was employed to be the greenhouse manager, my responsibility to maintain the plants. We made regular trips out to San Diego and surrounding areas to purchase houseplants in bulk. Yes, houseplants were a big deal back in those days... much larger an operation than the scant choices one finds today in WalMart or Lowes and other such places. But the time came when it was no longer affordable, and no longer a passion for many. The thrill was gone...
We also have a decent collection of gardening books, mostly using the organic method, which has presently come into it's own and numerous cooks now demand organic produce as does the public. Perhaps you're one. I was plugged into the organic movement back in the late 70's and put it to practice in our own garden... quite successfully for several years. As things eventually turn, time did not allow for the full attention gardening demands for success and the garden lay dormant for several years. I restored it some 3 years ago and keep it simple and manageable.
Books are inspirational. You know that. You all are readers. Books take us on journeys that otherwise we never would have taken, much less even know about in some cases. Books are important... they create a certain amount of trust in their words that we use as quotations to others in conversations. We rarely will completely deny the words within a book, so powerful they are. Undoubtedly, the most powerful book is the Bible with sales ranging from 2.5 billion to more than 6 billion. Surprisingly the second most popular book in sales of single volume sales is Quotations from Chairman Mao (the Little Red Book), ranging from 800 million to 6.5 billion, The Qu'ran comes in #3 with 800 million sales. (Thx to Wikipedia).
These hugely popular books have been the main reason for the influence of these three subjects... so great as to cause wars between readers and splits within their own readerships. Words are the fuel which drives thought which brings more words into being. A constant recycling of words that basically reach for either fact or Truth, with pauses of pleasure and humor in between. Books inspire we hu'mans to do... do this and do that and do some more. We do and we do and even join in matrimony with ' i do' because we are doers and we do because of words. If we didn't have so many words, quite probably we wouldn't have so much to do. But that is not the case. Talk is the primary 'do' we do. Talk (or writings) inspire us to do.
I wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for words. You wouldn't be sitting in front of your monitor reading these words if it weren't for words. Words utter our thoughts, our desires, our wants and our needs... words explain ourselves to others and they convey messages of our feelings, our emotions, our longings and our dreams... words build walls and barriers, words dig tunnels thru mountains and scale the highest peaks and go deeper than the last words did.
How many words have exploded upon hu'manity from the internet... words that may never have taken the time to be written are now written incessantly and delivered digitally thru our digits to anyone that pauses to read the words and maybe... just maybe be inspired enough to write their own words.
Have a word?
cecil
1.31.10
Picture of the Week:
The Phar Lepht Lee Library
_________
Garden the Poem
a bundle of words
in constant flux
rotating in rhythm
urging more
to flow from within
a love of write
syllabic passions
non-stop
overflow
flooding
her pastures
so more fruit
will bear for
signatures wielded
in soft calls
voice velvet
interjects of
vital humor
garden the poem
_________
_________
Garden the Poem
a bundle of words
in constant flux
rotating in rhythm
urging more
to flow from within
a love of write
syllabic passions
non-stop
overflow
flooding
her pastures
so more fruit
will bear for
signatures wielded
in soft calls
voice velvet
interjects of
vital humor
garden the poem
_________
