Enough, already!

When is enough, enough?

Reading about the modest Brookfield library in Vermont got me thinking about the idea of good enough...a seemingly foreign concept in our ever striving culture.
I love the old fashioned simple, cozy libraries because they have everything a library really needs - a roof, comfy furniture, books and a librarian (to keep the peace and recommend the best books).  If you’re lucky you might meet a cat or stumble upon a used book sale.

But in the 21st century, what I would call simple and cozy most people would call old school and boring.  
We are always on the look out for something better, easier, faster, shinier.  It makes it hard to be satisfied with what we have.

Our latest cultural obsession is the cell phone.  I admit that I am not a big fan of cell phones in general.  With the exception of my family, I would rather not be distracted by my phone while I am driving, working, sleeping or eating.  

When phones knew their places and stayed in them, life was easier.  If you happened to be sitting near the phone when it rang you picked it up.  If you were somewhere else, doing something else you wanted to do, you wouldn’t hear the phone or answer it and the world would keep spinning.  When you were done with whatever you were doing, you could return the call.  Boring.  Old school.

The new too much are mobile apps for smart phones.

Bob Tedeschi writes about apps for the New York Times and gave me a little education.
There are more than 300,000 apps that deliver unique “experiences” to their users.   300,000.
An experience can mean almost everything...apps that name the tune you’re humming, track your calories, name constellations, turn your phone into a musical instrument and a strobe light (just in case you’re out somewhere and really need a strobe light?)

Who has time for all this?  (Probably people who aren’t spending so much time learning about the library).

I went in search of library/book apps to see what I would waste time on if I had a smart phone (which I am wildly resisting) and found several apps that I simultaneously lusted after and was repulsed by:

• SAT Vocabulary builder -  master 250 vocabulary words from Princeton Review’s hit parade - a necessity for a mom with kid on her way to college.
• Local books - helps you find bookstores, libraries and book events in your vicinity - eliminates the needs for a google search,  a scrap of paper with scribbled address and GPS.
• BookMyne - HOLD THE PHONE - this one is super cool.  Imagine you’re at a friend’s for dinner.  You’re flipping through this ‘super-cool-I-want-it-now’ book on their coffee table.  Your blood pressure is rising and you risk being anti-social because you can’t take your eyes off the page.  THEN you whip out your phone and scan the book’s barcode and find out it’s on the shelf at your library, just waiting for you to snap it up in the morning!!  I love it.  OR use bookmyne to cross check the NYT best seller list with books available in your library system (you can also check out how many fines your racking up when you forget to return all these must have books).

Author Eric Hoffer may have been right when he wrote, “You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy.”