Today's Quote

Sometimes I prepare books to send to other libraries. I was processing one that was a collection of famous letters from history. So I flipped through it and read a couple. I found some interesting correspondence.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (author of Uncle Tom's Cabin), received a letter from her sister saying:
"Hattie, if I could use a pen as you can, I would write something to make this whole nation feel what an accursed thing slavery is."

This is Harriet's response:
"Tell Katy I thank her for her letter and will answer it. As long as the baby sleeps with me nights I can't do much at anything, but I will do it at last. I will write that thing if I live.
What are folks in general saying about the slave law, and the stand taken by Boston ministers universally, except Edward? To me it is incredible, amazing, mournful!! I feel as if I should be willing to sink with it, were all this sin and misery to sink in the sea... I wish father would come on to Boston and preach on the Fugitive Slave Law, as he once preached on the slave-trade, when I was a little girl in Litchfield. I sobbed aloud in one pew and Mrs Judge Reeves in another. I wish some Martin Luther would arise to set this community right."

Now, am I the only one who noticed something unusual there?
"I wish some Martin Luther would arise to set this community right."

Of course, Harriet is referring to Martin Luther who nailed his 95 Theses to the door of a Catholic church and sparked the Reformation in the 1500's. But isn't it uncanny that she would choose him as her example, when so many years down the line, Martin Luther King Jr. would be the one to nail his own reformation to the hearts and minds of the entire world? Don't you think that is amazing? I never even thought, until now, about how Martin Luther King's namesake was right there staring me in the face all these years, and that he was the inspiration for a revolution of his own.

What would Mrs. Stowe say had she known that her wish would be satisfied so many years later?

Good Quote Today

"What about all these kids that waste up all the broadband playing their stupid games?!"

Says the man that is watching a video on youtube of a grizzly bear running.

Things I learned at work today

- Old kindly-looking ladies = not always kindly. In fact, can be snottier than teenagers.
- Women who take money from betwixt their bosom should be watched warily. Also, as a suggestion, use hand sanitizer after that monetary transaction.
- If someone tells you the bathroom needs "attending to" but doesn't elaborate, enter that bathroom with extreme caution.
- Some people will run from you if you're on your way to ask them to stop doing something they're not supposed to be doing.

Worst quote of the day:
"The Amish, like hobbits, are not generally an adventurous people." - Jon Marken, on the back cover of A Time to Live

So much to blog about...

So much has happened, I could write all night.

Here are the two biggest changes:

1. We hung our painting.

2. We bought a car.

I guess the car is the biggest change. It's a Toyota Matrix. It's a great fit for us because it's small enough to get good gas mileage, but inside it's really roomy, like a small van. So we figure we can fit a kid or two and some groceries in there. Now we just need to find some kids and go grocery shopping. Just kidding, but it is a nice change from our old car. I'm planning on devoting an entire post to the many challenges our old car poses to us on a daily basis. Another time, though.

I opened it

So this is my painting. It's actually called South/Summer. It's part of a series of 4 paintings done of North/South/East/West horizon lines from Maui at different times of the year (and I believe different times of day). This is the South Summer sunrise. The horizon line is split up into 5 sections, the leftmost being at the top, and then on down to the bottom as you move right. The blue lines are the ocean, and I don't know if you can tell, but it's raining.

I cracked it open last night. This picture is kind of grainy because I scanned it from a card that Lynne sent along with the painting. I think we will try to hang it somewhere, though it may involve a little redecorating.

So what do you think?

My big painting

It looked smaller in the truck.

When I bought this painting, I knew that I wouldn't be able to hang it until we move to a different place. It's large. It really doesn't matter that I can't hang it right away, I'm glad that it's here in one piece and ready for the future.

But it does sort of present a problem when you look at it in my kitchen. I don't really have space to hang it, but I do want to look at it! It seems sad to leave it crated until we move to a bigger place, but that might be the safest thing to do.

Who wants to bet that I'm ripping it open by Thursday?

What gets results...

Alright, people.

We have a policy at the library, that if someone prints something out and comes to pick it up/pay for it, that we ask the patron what they printed. This helps us to not give the wrong printout to the wrong patron. Many patrons print out bank statements, tax records, and other sensitive information.

So when I ask people what they printed, and they get defensive and confused, I try to be as kind as I can and explain why we do what we do.

This afternoon I asked a patron what he printed, and he was astounded and incredulous, but told me what he printed and I gave it to him. He couldn't help coming back five minutes later to say, "I was just wondering what the reason was that you ask what the patrons print." And I told him and he responded, "Oh, wow, it's just a straightforward answer. I was expecting something weird. That makes sense, though."

I was inspired. He had a totally rational and reasonable response. So I pulled out a sticky note and wrote this down:

People are good.
People can be reasonable.
People have off days.
Everyone is doing the best that they can.

Ok, there are obvious exceptions to this, but if I can give people the benefit of the doubt right off, then I'm doing them a favor and will be more patient myself.

So the next time a patron came to get a printout, he had the look. The look is that impatient, hurry-up-already look.
So he said, "I printed something."
And I said, "Ok, what was it that you printed?"
And he gave me an incredulous look and said, "It's a paper, it's probably the only thing on there. How much is it to print?"
And I said, "It's a dime."
And as I said that he held up a dime in the air for me to see, and then threw it across the counter at me, in a "Now get my printout" sort of way.

Now people, the moral of this blog post is: you may think that being huffy and acting stressed out may work with some on-the-phone customer service people, but my belief is that 90% of the time, if you are patient and kind, you'll get more results.

I know this because it works with me. If he had been kind and patient with me, I would have worked with him. But throwing money at me across the desk isn't going to help anyone, especially you.

So I said, "They ask us to ask what people print out just to make sure that we don't give the wrong thing to the wrong people. Some people print out confidential information."
He got frustrated and said, "It has ____ name across the top."
So I picked it up and gave it to him, and he turned to walk away and ranted so I could hear, "There was only one printout! Of course it would be mine. There's no need to ask, grumble grumble..."

First, the logical argument.
Actually, no. Someone else could have printed one page and your print could be pending. Some documents don't print out for several minutes once someone sends them to the printer. We also periodically pull things off of the printer and set them on the counter, so his could have been just pulled off and someone else printed one page in the meantime. There are lots of things that could have happened.

Second: Come on.
Harassing a librarian? Really? I don't deserve this. I'm doing what has been asked of me and trying to protect your information at the same time. I don't deserve the verbal abuse that patrons can give. It's not really worth anyone's time to sit and take lip from you, and it didn't even get you anywhere.

I might have to throw away my sticky note.