What I Learned Today

Today I attended a volunteer orientation at the Monrovia library. There were about 15 of us, mostly women, and mostly much older than me, but all very friendly and motivated. The volunteer coordinator is a warm and enthusiastic leader, and our first activity was a tour through the brand-new library. As we walked under the entrance arch and the ceiling opened up above us in the main circulation area, I felt a shiver of delight. The library was empty of people, but filled with an expectant air, awaiting its grand debut on Saturday. All of the books and tapes and movies and CDs and computers were in position, seeming almost eager for new hands and new uses. We walked past the stacks, and I tried to stay focused forward, but there were books on every side, calling out for attention with colorful covers and intriguing titles. I could dive right in and swim happily through this library for days on end.

We came back to Earth after our tour and discussed what our duties will be. Their prime need right now is for greeters (referred to as Library Orientation and Support Technicians, or “LOST” volunteers, I kid you not) to guide patrons to the right areas of the new library, answer basic questions, point the way to the restrooms, and so on. After doing this for a few weeks, we can keep doing it or move on to other volunteer needs around the library, such as sorting and mending books, helping out in the Friends of the Library bookstore, literacy tutoring, etc. The great news is that I can immediately start as a greeter, while they are still processing my application and figuring out when best to inject me with tuberculins. The other jobs await full application review. We passed around a signup sheet, and my first stint as a volunteer will be 3-5 p.m. on May 22.

I learned that:

• The new library offers both computer workstations and (free) wireless access (library card required).
• There are self-checkout machines!
• Volunteers agree to a minimum of 5 hours per month and a 6-month commitment. Not a problem, as I’ve reserved all of Fridays for as much volunteering as I like.
• There is a confidentiality requirement in library assistance; you are expected not to share what questions a given patron has asked, unless you anonymize the query. Good to know.

I’m very much looking forward to the library’s grand opening on Saturday. Not only is Ray Bradbury speaking at 3:30 p.m., but they are also holding a children’s spelling bee at 11 a.m.! I’m tempted to go along and see what kind of words show up at this one. :)

Today I visited the brand-new Monrovia library to interview with their volunteer coordinator. We discussed their various volunteer needs and settled on what could be a good fit for me: sorting, mending, and pricing donated books (“We need people with good research skills for this”), greeting visitors at the door (“The library is brand-new and no one knows where to find anything”), and possibly helping in their computer center (“We have such a need”). I’m absolutely thrilled to get a chance to work with library books behind the scenes. The idea of helping people use computers gives me flashbacks to my time as a computer lab assistant as an undergraduate, but hey, I have no doubt that the need is there.

Satisfied with our discussion, the coordinator gave me an application to fill out. She glanced at my educational history and said, “Ah, so you finished school last year?” Without thinking, I replied, “Well, unless I decide to go back again,” and she laughed and said, “Yes, it’s always good to be open to more schooling!”

I think I’ll fit right in.

There is a volunteer orientation to attend next Tuesday, during which we’ll work out scheduling and all of the volunteers will get to meet each other. It might take a while before I actually get to dive in, though, because the Human Resources department apparently needs about a month to process my application. This not only involves calling my references but also getting my fingerprints and testing me for drugs, alcohol, and TB.

Note: the library’s grand opening is next Saturday, May 16, and Ray Bradbury will be attending! He’s giving a speech at 3:30 p.m. I’m so there.

It’s the story of a world superpower that reached its height and then was felled by corruption (from its extreme wealth) and inattention to local threats (due to embroilment in the Middle East). Not contemporary news, not science fiction, but Gibbon’s “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”. I haven’t read this book, but after a fascinating lecture on it today, I’m eager to get my hands on a copy.

This lecture, by Dr. J. Rufus Fears, comes from the “Books that have made history: Books that can change your life” course that was included on a sampler CD I recently received from The Teaching Company. In my opinion, the lecture is polished and engrossing enough to elevate it above “lecture” to “oration.” Dr. Fears posits that Gibbon identified two causes for the Empire’s fall, as noted above. (The “local threats” were the incursions by the Teutons (pre-French, pre-Germans) who, along with Iran’s religiously fanatical hordes, invaded the Roman Empire). These factors alone would make for relevant reading, but there may be more to it. The wikipedia page on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire claims instead that Gibbon attributed the decline to 1) a “loss of civic virtue” in its citizens (brought on by wealth and prosperity) 2) the influence of Christianity (belief in an afterlife rendering citizens less concerned with the present, and pacifist tendencies weakening the “Roman martial spirit”). The latter seems to have made him especially unpopular (despite the otherwise runaway success of the book). Now I definitely want to take a look myself and see where he most strongly attributes the blame.

Dr. Fears also cites the work as being worth reading for the quality of its prose, noting that Winston Churchill claimed to have “learned to write” by reading Gibbon. High praise indeed!

Gibbon himself presents an interesting historical figure. He decided to write on the subject of Rome in the years before the American Revolution, and he was writing during the Revolution itself, and also serving in the British Parliament. He seems to have had some strong views about how England should be handling the situation (based on what can be seen in similar historical situations, and particularly that of the Roman Empire), but rarely spoke out about them in public, and always voted with Lord North (then the Prime Minister of England, and a strong force in opposition to the colonies). He also felt that if civilization ever failed in Europe, at least it could be carried forward in America.

This one definitely goes on my “to-read” list (or at least “to-sample”). You can read it yourself starting with Chapter 1 from Project Gutenberg or listen to Chapter 1 from librivox (19 hours, 50 minutes running time). And then I want to go back and re-read Sheri Tepper’s book, “Gibbon’s Decline and Fall.” Enjoyment is all the richer when you have the full context.

On Sunday, I drove out to Amboy Crater in the desert between Barstow and Needles. More on that later. On the drive out I listened to the LibriVox recording of How to Live on Twenty-Four Hours a Day, a book written in 1912 by Arnold Bennett. It’s a delightful book with tips not about time management per se, but more about how to enjoy living your life in the hours available. His tips include:

• Get up earlier in the morning. You don’t really need as much sleep as you’re getting, and it keeps you from more interesting mental activity. “Most people sleep themselves stupid,” he quotes.
• Difficult tasks are good for you. He lauds the “necessity for the tense bracing of the will before anything worth doing can be done,” indicating that this is what separates him from the cat on the hearth. Well, he has a point; the deliberate choice of difficult endeavors is not something a cat regularly attempts.
• You aren’t really tired when you get home from work. “Mental faculties are capable of a continuous hard activity […] all they want is change, not rest.”
• His prescription: use the morning commute to train your mind to focus on something, anything, of interest, and keep it there for the whole time. Use the evening commute to learn about your self: analyze your behaviors, desires, goals, and really get to know what makes you happy. Use 3 evenings a week to, basically, improve yourself: e.g., pick an art you like (music, ballet, theater, etc.) and learn about how it is produced, its details, its history, and your enjoyment of such performances will be greatly heightened. Or do some “serious reading”, by which he means, specifically, “difficult reading.” He recommends “imaginative poetry” as the most difficult sort, and therefore best for you. He recommends starting with “Aurora Leigh” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, which I am now intrigued by and have placed on my to-read list.
• Reading time should be split half and half between reading and reflecting on what you have read. I find this an interesting proposition. He notes that you will make slower progress, but it will be richer progress. This seems likely to be true, yet could I force myself to spend so much time on reflection and analysis? A good challenge!

Overall, I found the book thought-provoking and very entertaining as a reading (listening) experience alone. It’s only 1.5 hours long spoken, so I imagine it’s an even quicker read… consuming a minimal amount of your 24 hours.