Everyone Was Working :: April 10th, 2002 ::
Recently, I’ve taken to spending my afternoons at the downtown public library. Usually I take a bus down there, spend two to three hours looking for books, reading some sort of esoteric magazine or another, and watching people. Yesterday when I was there a group of high school kids came in with a person I took to be their teacher. When they were loud and unfocused, she was resolute and provided guidance. Without reprimanding any of them, she was able to quiet them down. They listened to her, which I found heartening.
Everyone was working. One of the reasons I come to the library is because there’s a certain force there, an aura that encourages, almost demands you to work on something, that you better yourself. Though it has something to do with the stacks of books, the pervasive sense of order, the accessibility of those places, there is something more there, a common, unspoken understanding of everyone there. At least, that’s what it felt like. It may have just been quiet, and I was reading too much into it.
