Ms. Solnit writes, “While their fear and dismay is often regarded as rooted in delusion, rightwingers are correct that the world is metamorphosing into something new and, to them, abhorrent.”
I can picture a not too far off future when an aging body of today’s right wing voters march on Washington to demand attention to Social Security issues and increases in funding from a US Congress that has a majority of members being people of color and or Hispanic origin.
Bills will be introduced to increase social security funding and benefits for these old right wingers.
I think there will be much satisfaction for many members of that Congress in voting no.
imagination seeds of dreams are found in books golly miss dolly
Since moving to the South, I can report there are indeed some things southern that southerners take seriously.
Very seriously.
Football.
Well, college football anyway.
On this devotion to college athletics, all I can say is that my old college up north has, since 2018, played in the NCAA Final Four of all FOUR major sports.
That includes, football, basketball, baseball AND hockey.
When UGa or ‘Bama add a hockey team, call me.
The love and devotion to that food item known as grits is real.
I have had some that are really good.
I have some that were like eating ice cream on the beach on windy day.
Gritty.
And there is Dolly Parton.
The patron Saint of the South.
Being from the North, I knew of Miss Dolly.
Even one of my favorite northerner authors, Jim Harrison once wrote about the crystal clarity of Miss Dolly’s voice.
She seemed sweet but no one to be taken seriously or at least not too seriously.
Miss Dolly is on my mind because the other day I was online at my local library which here in the Low Country is the Beaufort County Library.
Through this partnership with the Imagination Library, free books were now available to kids in the area.
I was aware of this program if vaguely so.
Some years ago, with much fanfare it seems to my memory, Dolly Parton announced that she wanted to give books to kids.
Very sweet, but not something I took very seriously.
I was sure it was pretty much a publicity stunt of some kind.
It seems like I remember reading that over one million books had been given away through this program.
But in the back of my brain were other memories about Miss Dolly,
Miss Dolly had recently donated a large amount of money to Covid Vaccine research.
Back a few years ago when fires went through the Great Smokey Mountains part of Tennessee where she was born, Miss Dolly cut an album of songs and the proceeds went to relief agencies.
Intrigued enough by the announcement and these other memories, I clicked on the link to read about this new partnership.
I went with a cynical, ‘oh really‘, ‘isn’t that sweet‘ pre-set suspect animus in my mind.
Then I read the announcement.
Then I read some more.
Then I closed my eyes and said a quick prayer to thank God for people like Miss Dolly.
I figured that this program sent some lucky kids a book.
And it does.
Once a month.
Every month.
Until the lucky kid turns five.
The program had not delivered just one million books, BUT one million books A MONTH.
I had to read that part a couple of times to make sure I read it right.
I immediately searched the zip codes where my grand children live to see if the program was available there.
If it was, my grand kids were going to get signed up.
Sad to say it wasn’t.
Maybe there are flaws to the program.
Maybe there are flaws that make this program hard to partner with.
Maybe, maybe maybe.
On the other hand, maybe this is one of those programs that people, for reasons mentioned, think this is a sweet little program but not one to be taken seriously.
I don’t want to think that.
I want to think this program exists to put books in the hands of kids.
I want to believe it.
I want to believe it is what it is and says what it says and does what it does.
I want to believe that Miss Dolly is as sweet as I think she is.
I want to believe that Miss Dolly is as serious as she says she is.
The Imagination Library website states:
Inspired by her father’s inability to read and write Dolly started her Imagination Library in 1995 for the children within her home county. Today, her program spans five countries and gifts over 1 million free books each month to children around the world.
The website then quotes Miss Dolly herself:
“When I was growing up in the hills of East Tennessee, I knew my dreams would come true.
I know there are children in your community with their own dreams.
They dream of becoming a doctor or an inventor or a minister.
Who knows, maybe there is a little girl whose dream is to be a writer and singer.
The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world.”
I also remember that recently the state of Tennessee was planning to put up a statue of Miss Dolly.
As I remember it, Miss Dolly asked that the money go to charity instead.
Very sweet.
Very Very Sweet.
Very serious.
Why isn’t the Imagination Library available where you live?
You want to do something during covid, there isn’t anything much easier than ask this question.
Ask this question, then do something about it.
The Imagination Library is looking for the next local champion.
As Miss Dolly said, The seeds of these dreams are often found in books and the seeds you help plant in your community can grow across the world.
to look around me as though I had never been in this place before
I based this haiku and several others like it from the writing in the book, The Art of Travel (2002, Vintage Books) by Alain de Botton, and the passage:
I tried to reverse the process of habituation, to dissociate my surroundings from the uses I had previously found for them. I forced myself to obey a strange sort of mental command: I was to look around me as though I had never been in this place before. And slowly, my travels began to bear fruit.
According to the website, GOOD READS, Any Baedeker will tell us where we ought to travel, but only Alain de Botton will tell us how and why.
As I said in the section on Architecture , what I find irresistible in reading Mr. de Botton is his use of language.
To also quote myself, I get the feeling that if you made a spread sheet of all the words, adverbs and adjectives used by Mr. de Botton, you just might find that he used each word just once.
everything being of potential interest, layers of value
I based this haiku and several others like it from the writing in the book, The Art of Travel (2002, Vintage Books) by Alain de Botton, and the passage:
I tried to reverse the process of habituation, to dissociate my surroundings from the uses I had previously found for them. I forced myself to obey a strange sort of mental command: I was to look around me as though I had never been in this place before. And slowly, my travels began to bear fruit.
Once I began to consider everything as being of potential interest, objects released latent layers of value.
According to the website, GOOD READS, Any Baedeker will tell us where we ought to travel, but only Alain de Botton will tell us how and why.
As I said in the section on Architecture , what I find irresistible in reading Mr. de Botton is his use of language.
To also quote myself, I get the feeling that if you made a spread sheet of all the words, adverbs and adjectives used by Mr. de Botton, you just might find that he used each word just once.
book shop after hours slide money under the door good deed weary world
The Old Bay Marketplace is an arcade or covered outdoor walkway through the middle of a building that is lined with shops on either side of the walkway located on Bay Street in downtown Beaufort, South Carolina.
On the corner of the entrance to the arcade on Bay Street is a used bookstore named the McIntosh Book Shoppe.
The McIntosh Book Shoppe is situated there on the corner of the entrance into the arcade so that there is a door facing Bay Street and another back door that opens out into the covered walkway.
The space outside this back door under the covered walkway is crowded with book carts and tables that are filled with books for sale.
The back door to the McIntosh Book Shoppe
So many carts, tables and books are crowded into this space that moving all these carts, tables and books would be a lot of work to bring in at night and put back out the next day.
So the books, carts and tables are not brought in at night.
The books, carts and tables stay outside in the covered arcade.
On the arcade wall, next to the door, is a metal rack stuffed full of envelopes.
Next to the metal rack stuffed full of envelopes is a small, hand lettered sign.
The sign reads:
After hours – put money in envelope and slide under the door.
It is altogether appropriate at this point to quote Big Bill’s, “How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world” (Merchant of Venice – Act V, Scene I)
But, somehow, it is better to quote Gene Wilder in the role of Willy Wonka.
So shines a good deed in a weary world.
PS: Admit it – this made you smile and feel a little bit of a warm bump inside – maybe a small kick of hope in your soul.
No Haiku For You 