Rock Talk

Look what I found at the LeClaire, Iowa Community Library! I found this TRUST rock first. It was on the top step, by the railing. I thought it was so cool. I didn’t pick it up, but rather, ran inside and grabbed my phone to take a picture of it. 

Then my eye caught the red one with a white star/flower painted on it. It’s a smaller pebble and it was sitting on a large landscape boulder. I noticed a corner of a white paper sticking out from underneath so I picked it up. On the bottom it read: “By. K.W.  Maryville Rocks 865.  Please post  pic to FB”

I went back to the TRUST rock to check for a tag on the bottom. Sure enough, the same tag was there. I decided to walk around the library to see if any other painted rocks were hiding in plain sight. The smallest of the three pebbles, a little yellow guy,  I found on the edge of a window well.

Courtesy of Google Images

I wonder how many hands and how many different terrains those rocks passed through to get from Tennessee to Iowa. Maybe someone visiting Nashville found one at Tootsies. Maybe one of these little rocks spent time at The Land Between the Lakes. 

Courtesy of Wikipedia

I’d like to think the one that says TRUST had a stop at Christ of the Ozarks, near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Maybe one went to the top of the Gateway Arch in Kansas City, Mo.

This artistic form of communication is delightful, and you don’t have to go far to find a Rock Group in your area. Wendy Reyes, a former colleague of mine, started QC Rocks (Quad City Rocks.) You can find them at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1101977619903168/  The Quad City Times did a story a few months back about Wendy and QC Rocks. You can read it here: http://qctimes.com/news/local/bettendorf/rock-your-world-facebook-group-sends-positive-greetings-via-rock/article_0073f289-ce04-5c12-b400-fe90d3108777.html

This past summer the national news had a feature about a woman who wrote inspirational messages in cards and randomly left them to be found by others.The story was about how her random messages seemed to be picked up by just the right person. The person who needed those words of encouragement the most right at that moment. 

In fact, I’ve written a couple of notes myself to library patrons. As a library clerk I see a lot of what’s going on in our patron’s lives based on the subject matter of materials they’ve had shipped in from our cooperating libraries.(Kind of like the mail carrier, right?) A person’s library check-outs are private and not to be discussed or shared with others in any way.

Ummm… I may have overstepped that line when I wrote two post-it notes one day. One note was to a patron I know well. She’s always checking out self-help books. I think she’s a lovely person and too hard on herself. I put a note to that effect in a book she had on hold. And signed my name. The second note went in a pile of cookbooks. The subject was healthy eating when dealing with cancer. This patron had six different books on the topic shipped in from other libraries. I just felt the need to tell them I was praying for them. I did not sign my name to that one.

That day I felt great! I was “being the good I wish to see in the world.” That night, instead of sleeping, the privacy policy ran over and over in my brain. What a way to be fired.  Well, I wasn’t fired. The patron who knows me thanked me for the kind words.  As far as the cancer patient patron’s note, I don’t know who they were,or if the note gave them any comfort.

I don’t think all of this creative communication is random at all. I believe good people are working hard to make our world a better place: one.person.at.a.time. That’s all. Just one person at a time. Let’s help each other friends.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

Used Book Sales

I love used book sales held at libraries. I live in a metro area that has about a dozen public and college libraries within a twenty-mile radius of my house. I went to a sale this past weekend and will go to another next weekend. Fall seems to be book fair season around  here. Yay for me!

I want to share with you some of my (old) new books, but before I do that, let’s take a look at some that I didn’t buy.

How Not To Read: Harnessing the Power of a Literature-free Life, by Dan Wilbur. The blurb boasts of techniques on how to fake your literature knowledge. Additionally, it states that if you must read something, tips on how to read fast and cut corners are within the books pages. That’s one hundred-seventy-six pages a non-reader has to slog through to learn how to fake having read. I love it. It’s so ridiculous!

Next up: How To Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading, by Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren. This book, dubbed “a living classic,” was first published in 1940. It’s a guide for comprehension techniques for a variety of reading materials, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and so on. It’s a hefty book, four-hundred-twenty-six pages of information.

And, while I’m sharing “opposites,” how about this one?  The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as If He Doesn’t Exist by Craig Groeschel. This title’s a toughie. I think we all can relate to this kind of behavior. I know I can. Groeschel, a minister, reflects on his life when it does not match up with scripture. The word atheist turned me off to this book. It caught my attention because of the oxymoron in the title. Now that I’ve done a little on-line research, I kind of wished I would have picked it up.

Oh, and one of my all-time NOT favorites: Who Moved My Cheese? By Spencer Johnson, M.D. I hate this book so much because I once had a principal who made it ‘required reading’ for the staff. The worst of it was that she was a lunatic and expected us to follow her lead. Every time I see this book, I cringe. And I always seem to find several copies at library book sales.But then I found Who Cut the Cheese? By Stilton Jarlsberg, M.D. It made me happy to see a parody on my most hated book ever! (It too, is a self-help book, but with a sense of humor.)

Now, on to my great buys: I found three first edition books this time! That doesn’t happen very often. 

I’ve done some research; these first two are only worth a few bucks in the book market. All The President's Men by Bernstein and Woodward and First On The Moon, by Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin. I’ll hang on to them because of the subject matter. I’m sure at some time the asking price will rise. (Who knows if I'd sell, anyway...)

The third book was a flash-back to grade school. I remember studying the Kon-Tiki way back in the day. I looked this book up on-line and it seems to be selling in the $300.00 on up range. I hit the jackpot on a seventy-five cent investment. (But I’m not selling just yet.)

I purchased four other books of interest, for a total of $6.75. A very good investment I think.

Visit your local libraries’ book sales. They’re great fund raisers for your public library’s programming and you’ll get all the really good stuff in return! Now excuse me while I read a new (old) book.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

Las Vegas Strong

Courtesy of Google Images

Ten days ago. It’s already been ten days since shit hit the fan in Vegas on October first. It wears a person down. Depression and anxiety rear their ugly heads. It’s all part of the radiating evil of the whole thing-to make us feel afraid and vulnerable.

Evil will not win. We can’t let it. Even though we might be afraid, might feel vulnerable, we will keep on keeping on. It’s the American way. It’s what we do. I love that about us.

On Tuesday, October 3rd, my sister,Nanette, her husband, and some of their family members were heading to Vegas for a family wedding and vacation. I talked to my sister before she left. She said she would stay aware of her surroundings, but she would not let some bastard dictate how she lives her life. Hear! Hear! little sister! I agree whole-heartedly.

Courtesy of Google Images

On Thursday, October 5th, Tim and I and our daughter and son-in-law went to a Chris Stapleton concert. The arena opened the doors and hour earlier than they typically do. Every person was wanded. Every purse was looked in, and every hat, too. Every single person was patted-down as well. We knew this would be happening, and yet we were determined to live our lives and keep on keeping on.

During the concert Mr. Stapleton talked a bit about the tragedy in Las Vegas. He stated that by them (his group and him) being here at the concert, (Taxslayer Center in Moline, IL) and us (the audience) being here meant that we denounced evil and all of its potential ramifications.

Then, for the victims, survivors, and families of the shooting,(and really, all of us, I think,) he sang his song, Broken Halos (Click the title to listen to his song.)

I just talked with my sister, and asked her about the mood in Vegas this week. She said everything seemed to be “business as usual.” Other Vegas visitors, like her, mentioned it to each other on elevators and in waiting lines, but that was it. “No one seemed to be thriving on it,” she said.

Oct 8, 2017. Courtesy of ABC News

One thing she did tell me was that on Sunday night, all the lights on the strip and in the casinos dimmed for eleven minutes. (That’s about how long the rampage lasted.)

Peace my friends.

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine

Empowering Girls through Princess Stories

Even the male illustrator is listed before
the female author. That's just not right!

Usborne is a well-known children’s book publisher. They create beautifully illustrated books for children of all ages. People who purchase Usborne books expect a quality story for their children. Unfortunately, all is not well in the Usborne Kingdom.

A few days ago, my three-year–old granddaughter chose a nap-time story for me to read to her. It was a beautiful pink color with a cute little girl princess on the cover.

The Unsborne Book of Princess Stories. Looks good, right? Wrong. And let me tell you why. There are four short stories in this book. Two of them are fine, but the other two are ridiculously anti-girl power. Here’s the gist and my take on each story.

The first story is entitled The Princess and the Pig. In this story Prince Max and his sister, Princess Alice, are playing outside. Alice finds a little pig stuck in a big mud puddle. She pulls the little pig out of the mud, while her brother, Prince Max, reminds her that she’s not supposed to get her dress dirty. “Don’t let Queen Mama see you. She told you not to get your dress dirty.” (Seriously????? What year is this? 1960?)

Alice ignores her brother and washes the piggy...and she gets in trouble for getting her dress dirty. Alice is undeterred.  She kisses the pig and it turns into a little boy prince. (Sure, why the hell not? Makes perfect story sense…) Queen Mama says, “We can’t have a strange prince in the castle, change him back.” So Alice kisses him again and he turns back into a pig. (What kind of a queen mom would refuse a little boy who’d been turned into a pig? If I was a kid hearing this story, I’d be so stressed about having the boy turned back into a pig!)

The next story, thankfully, is better. In The Dragon, Alice and Max find a hungry little dragon. They bring him home and feed him. And because he’s a fire-breathing dragon, he becomes the royal fireplace starter. (He gets to live in the castle but a pig-turned-little prince-turned-pig-again is sent away? I’m still bitter over that one.)

The third story is a real piece of work. It’s called The Tournament. The castle is excitedly preparing for a jousting tournament.  Max gets to practice jousting but Alice can’t, because no girls are allowed. Alice, bless her little rebel heart, won’t have it. She dresses in her brother’s clothes and calls herself “Alex.” While jousting, “Alex” knocks a boy off his horse. Alice is found out when she trips and falls off her horse. (She didn’t even get the respect of being jousted off. Just another clumsy girl, I guess…) Queen Mama says to her, “You’re a very naughty girl.” (I thought this story was so bad, I talked with my granddaughter about how girls can do all kinds of stuff that boys can do, too. Then I re-read it two times, changing it to: “The boys and girls all practiced jousting together. Sometimes they fell off and got hurt, but they got back on their horses and kept practicing.”)

I didn’t even want to read the final story, The Royal Broomstick, but I did because my granddaughter had to put off nap-time as long as possible. Luckily, this book ends on a stronger note. The children go to visit their grandmother in her tower. Grandma is not there so the kids decide to wait for her and end up playing with her magic broom.They get on it and fly out the window. They have great fun and even find grandma’s pet cat stuck in a tree. They bring the cat home and grandma is happy her kitty has been found.

Fifty percent of the stories in this book are stupid. The marketing department at Usborne did a great job on the cover and back blurb. They made it sound so inviting, without telling a lie about the contents of the book. No mention of the Princess Alice being naughty or dirty or trying to do ‘boy things.’

This post is getting long, but hang with me for a minute more. I can’t close without telling you about an awesome, strong princess book. The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch is the kind of princess story children should be reading. 

In this story, a nasty fire-breathing dragon burns up the castle and everything in it. The dragon carries off the prince and leaves the princess behind. Since everything is gone, destroyed by the dragon, including her clothes, she finds a paper bag to wear as a dress and heads out to save the prince. She goes through hell and high water to get to the dragon’s lair and rescues the prince. BUT, he’s an asshole, so she tells him off and leaves. It’s a great story of courage, perseverance and self-respect.

"Elizabeth, you are a mess!
You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess."

Until next time,

Be Good to Yourself.

~Nadine