Gratitude

I hate to be cynical about Mother’s Day BUT does it seem like just another commercial holiday that encouraged people to buy flowers and take their moms out to eat?  Sure it’s good for the economy but are we really expressing our gratitude for our mothers - who deserve every last drop - or acting out of Hallmark inspired guilt?  

My mother lives 600 miles away so an overcrowded, under-nutritious brunch is out of the question (I sent her a certificate for a massage instead).  But my mother-in-law lives nearby and after some bad brunch experiences we have learned to go out to dinner the night before or invite her to our house.  My favorite Mother’s Day was when my daughter and I participated in a charitable 5K in Buffalo (I ran, she volunteered at the water stop).
 
In Napa, California (did you know it was a town, not just a valley?) there is a lovely pre-Mother’s Day Tea at the Historical Society, which just happens to be the former Goodman Library.  George Goodman was one of those banking, mining, railroad magnates who blessed his town with a beautiful library in 1902.  Even though Napa has a new modern library a few blocks away, the Historical Society still holds the library’s historical records collection which makes it the oldest continual library in California.  The Richardson Romanesque architecture survived the 1906 earthquake, which demolished several Napa landmarks, and it continued to serve the residents of Napa as a library for sixty years.

The Napa Valley Register’s video clip of the Tea offers a peak at some of the moms and daughters sipping their tea, nibbling scones and enjoying each others company.  If we can get past the carving table and the tulips, Mother’s Day is a perfect time for moms and kids of every age to practice gratitude.
Take some time this week to appreciate your mother or anyone in you family, whatever form it takes; mom, dad, siblings, cats, goldfish, hermit crab, pet rock - you can be grateful for any and all of them.  
Being grateful will help you feel more positive about what you have.  But, like going to the gym, it only works if you keep doing it.  

Here are a few ways to keep the grateful feelings flowing.

• Tune in to the world around you everyday.  Notice things and appreciate their beauty, pleasure or comfort.  It can be as simple as relishing the first sip of hot coffee, hearing the birds singing or breathing in the freshly cut grass smell (if you don’t have allergies).
• Write down things you are thankful for in a gratitude journal every day.  Oprah is big on this practice and for a good reason.  If you actively take time to be more grateful each day you will feel happier, become healthier and have more to be thankful about!
• Write or tell someone how grateful you are.  I mean really tell them, not just with an e-card but from your heart.  Get specific and gushy, you can even cry if you have to.  It’s not too late to write to Mom, I promise she won’t mind that her official holiday has gone by.  Connecting with someone on this level will strengthen your relationship and bring you closer together.

I must confess that I have overwhelming feelings of gratitude when I open the door to the library and glance around at all the books.  
I am grateful for the chance to escape the craziness of daily life and breathe.  
I am grateful for the chance to read the thoughts of so many gifted authors.
I am grateful for the chance to keep learning and growing as a person.
And, if I was at the Goodman Library, I would be grateful for the scones, the tea and my mother.

Dr. Seuss's Library

photo from UCSanDiego website

Between the news of library closings and the wretched, blowing snow I had just about enough of the East Coast today and decided to head to sunny San Diego to see Dr. Seuss.  Well, not exactly Dr. Seuss but his library at the University of California.  The Geisel Library is not a building that you could walk by without knowing it; imagine a mirrored space ship landing in a garden,  just about to lower the gangplank and you’ll have a good idea of what it looks like.  Its creative, imaginative design is a perfect tribute to Dr. Seuss.  
But the building wasn’t designed for or named after Theodore Geisel until 1995.   It began life as the ‘Central Library’ and was designed by William Perriera in the late 1960s.  The 8 story design is an example of Brutalism (with a name like that you know it can’t be pretty), which is a term for the kind of architecture that I find particularly unappealing.  Alison and Peter Smithson created the term Brutalism in the 50s for buildings that were created with raw concrete ‘beton brut’, or poured concrete in the style of Le Corbusier.  There are not many materials that I find less appealing than poured concrete (maybe sheet metal) and I find it particularly disturbing when used for a library. However, it seems that many Colleges and University disagree or are swayed by its affordability. Even the beautiful, historic campus of McGill University, my alma mater, had a library molded from the stuff that I spent many hours in, staring out the small window strips.  
I also have rather unpleasant memories of a massive concrete structure, surrounded by a concrete plazas and parking lots at the Community College of Rhode Island that I think served as the entire campus.  Shudder.
The exposed structure and geometric appearance of The Geisel Library classify it as brutalist and give it a unique science fiction appearance.  Not too many library have film credits but the Geisel library has appeared in the TV shows ‘Simon & Simon’ and ‘Mission Impossible’ and was portrayed as a snow fortress in the 2010 film ‘Inception’.  The whimsical entryway of the library was designed by Baldessari and the words “Read, Write, Think, Dream” are etched about the colorful doors (reminiscent of Carnegie’s inspirational quotes and grand library entrances).
The Mandeville Special Collections at the library is home to Dr. Seuss’s drawings, notebooks and artifacts.  The collection is extremely fragile and only available with special permission.  Items are on display during Seuss’s birthday month and in the summer.   Audrey Geisel, Seuss’s widow, made a sizable donation to support the libraries four years after Seuss’s death, which, coincidentally, is when the library was renamed “The Geisel Library”.
The library actually has an entire webpage dedicated to popular myths about the library - apparently it is a place that inspires creative thinking.  I was relieved to discover that the building is not sinking due to the weight of the books nor did it appear on an episode of Star Trek.
On the website Brian Schottlaender, University Librarian, recalls a story from Audrey Geisel about seeing the building for the first time...
"remember, in those days this building was much more isolated than it is now; it literally rose up out of the ground. As Audrey recalls, Ted said, “Wow! If I were an architect, that’s the library that I would build.” And so when Ted passed away, Audrey decided that this would be Ted’s library."

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Photo from Wikipedia

In honor of the Superbowl I decided to research sports libraries (more fun than spilled beer and congealed chicken wings).  Every subject under the sun has books, photos, interviews and magazines and they have to live somewhere - right?  Right.  The easy winner was The Paul Ziffren Sports Resource Center, located at 2141 W. Adams Blvd - the largest sports research library in North America.  It was created and is now operated by LA84 Foundation (formerly the Amateur Athletic Association), an organization established in 1984 with surplus funds from the 1984 Olympic Games in L.A. - how cool is that?  I could barely get my head around the idea of ‘surplus funds’ let alone comprehend that they would be put to such wonderful use.  By previous agreement 60% of excess revenues went back the U.S. Olympic Committee and 40%, a cool $93 million, stayed in Southern California.  Maybe it’s time for another Olympics?

The foundation’s mission is to “serve youth through sport and to increase knowledge of sport and its impact on people’s lives”. They support a variety of youth sports in Southern California and run their own sports education program that’s modeled around the country.  The library’s collection is extensive:  40,000 printed volumes, 90,000 photos and 400 magazine titles and it is also becoming digitized.  The digital collection contains more than 300,000 pages of books, journals and photographs and can be downloaded free of charge.  I immediately thought of the boys in my classroom who love to write about their favorite teams and sports heroes - what a great way to hook reluctant readers and give them the chance to do some real research.  The boys would really like to get into the museum and get their hands on some treasures: track shoes worn by Jesse Owens, Olympic Medals from as early as 1896, a collection of Olympic relay torches and Babe Ruth’s uniform.

The current home of the foundation, the Eugene W. Britt House, was slated for demolition in the early 80s when Peter and Ginny Ueberroth stepped in to not only rescue the house but also find a home for Paul Helm’s collection of rare sports memorabilia.   After a $2 million renovation the house was opened as a sports museum in time for the Olympic Games and is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The 10,000 square foot Ziffren Library was built on the grounds of the Britt House in 1988.  In case you’re wondering...Paul Ziffren was not an famous athlete, he was a lawyer and the Chair of the 1984 Olympic Games.  Ueberroth and Ziffren were the Penn & Teller of the LA Games - Ueberroth out in front, making things happen, while Ziffren worked behind the scenes to secure corporate sponsorship and keep the money rolling in.  Their partnership led to the $250 million surplus that continues to support young athletes and a library haven for sports fans.  I’d call that Higher, Faster, Stronger, Smarter.

Happy Birthday!

Martin Luther King Jr.  week arrived in 4th grade and  I started wondering about King’s papers and documents  - could there be a new library to explore?  Actually, there are many MLK  libraries to explore but let’s start with ‘The King Library and Archives’ located at The King Center in Atlanta.  The library has preserved King’s papers and is home to records, interviews and documents of people and organizations that are crucial to understanding the Civil Rights Movement in America.
The center is located at 449 Auburn Ave, SE in Atlanta and was built by Coretta Scott King in 1968 - it features exhibits to teach the public about MLK Jr., Coretta Scott King and Mahatma Gandhi, and it’s the site of MLK Jr. and Coretta Scott King’s graves.  The website has lots of goodies, including a beautiful introduction with  King’s  ‘The Drum Major Instinct’, a video clip of King receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, a link to Martin Luther King III’s article about his dad’s speech and an online gift shop!

Sixteen libraries are listed as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. libraries in Wikipedia - way too many to visit in one night … so I headed  to San Jose, CA to a particularly interesting venture between San Jose State University and the City of San Jose.  This Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. library, finished in 2003, was the first in America to combine a major university and a city library - a simple, powerful concept - more books, less overhead.

Check out the eight story glass atrium pouring sunlight over 475,000 square feet of library - home to over 1.3 million volumes (don’t worry, the books aren’t left out in the sunlight).   The city and university worked together to create spaces for everyone and everything, from contemplation to connection - more resort than library by New England standards.  Stop on the first four floors to hang out with friends and have a coffee, or drop by the teen or children’s  room.  Take an elevator ride straight to the top and enjoy a quiet space for reading, thinking and learning, the 8th floor reading room.  

This is a collaborative community project to celebrate.  But what about the historic libraries that would have to come down in order to create these new, improved spaces.  Is it possible to preserve our history while moving forward?  Of course it’s possible, it’ll just cost you.
 New York Times Editorial (on the destruction of Penn Station)- "We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."