I leant upon a coppice gate

The land's sharp features seemed to be

At once a voice arose among

So little cause for carolings

New Hearts

As is true this week, and maybe this month, for many people who write things for any kind of publication, I didn't think I had anything to say right now. As Dave Barry put it in his column last Wednesday (and trust me, if he has nothing to make me laugh, there just isn't anything), "No humor column today. I don't want to write it, and you don't want to read it."

However, having said I had nothing to write, then of course, a couple of things came to me.

On August 4th, I attended a bridal shower. This shower was for my cousin, who actually is sort of a step-relation who is a nice guy I don't know all that well.

Some of you may be aware that traditionally, bridal showers are something that girls do (hence the reference to the bride in the name of the event), and also that in recent years the "girl" rule is sometimes not followed. This was one of the type where men are invited and encouraged to come, with the explicit notice that we were not going to make them do anything totally embarrassing (this left out the game of making wedding gowns for them out of a roll of toilet paper, but that's OK). What I learned from this event is that bringing men to a shower brings a possibly-more-than-healthy spirit of competetiveness, too. For instance, I found myself nominated referee for the wedding pictionary game, in which I handed out the same word to each team and acted as judge regarding who was right first. Fortunately this event was held in a church, since I'm pretty sure this explains how I did not wind up in a body cast in the knock-me-down mad dash following each word. We also played shower-gift bingo, which meant everyone was following the gift-opening with complete concentration and focus. It was a lot of fun.

You are wondering by now what any of this has to do with this past week.

I'm getting there.

My cousin is Jonah, and his bride is April. The third game we played was this: take the letters of their names, A P R I L J O N A H, and make a sentence in which each word starts with each letter (first word starts with A, next word starts with P…)

We all wrote our sentences, some silly, some serious, and then we voted on a winner. Here it is:

Another Practical Rule Is, Love Joins Only New Anxious Hearts.

While this was a wonderful sentiment for a wedding event, it also applies to the past week, at least to me. I think it is quite parallel to note that love requires risk, and that freedom requires trust. As every RITA award winner knows, it's a Bad Thing to harden your heart and never take a risk on caring for someone.

So I got to thinking about how that relates to freedoms, the precept of innocence until guilt is proven, and the degree to which we have chosen trust over perfect safety. I see on the news all the time that someone has sued the manufacturer, the store of purchase, the government, and/or Batman and Robin because something harmed them. I've long thought that it was wrong of us to be heading this way, because the way our government is constructed, freedom is given a higher priority than safety, and we want it that way. Safety is good; being totally safe every moment at the expense of exploration, learning, and creativity is, in our value system, not. And so, coming back to my point, as love joins only new anxious hearts, freedom comes with the price of vulnerability. It's a balance I accept. I worry about hardening our hearts; about not valuing the things we can learn by trusting; about not valuing the people we can come to know, who are different from us, because we are afraid that by learning we might become unsafe. I worry that people who have themselves been able to feel safe with us despite the myriad ways in which they (and we) are different, may no longer get to feel safe, not in the name of freedom, but in the name of fear. I hope we collectively choose to continue to trust, learn, and explore. I hope we don't allow the hateful actions of a tiny few undermine our values. The system ain't broke, and doesn't need fixing.

And now, random associated bits and pieces:

• My 9 year old had to come ask me the pledge of allegiance. He wanted to say it, but had not been taught it. I objected when I was a kid to being forced to recite an unfelt, un-understood pledge daily--and actually, I think I do still object to kids being taught by rote and required to say it every day without thought or meaning--but I was more than a bit surprised that by the fourth grade he hadn't even been taught it. He wrote it down so he'd know it in the future.
• A ten-block radius of debris. In Eugene that would be an explosion in the Kentucky Fried Chicken on Willamette raining debris on the Knight Library, 5th Street Market, Civic Stadium, and the Lane County Fairgrounds. Hard to imagine.
• One of the most inane things that popped into my head last week was this: we know what one of the items on the Beloit College list will be, should they still be making one then, for the class of 2023.
• My favorite quote from our fearless leader. The guy gets a lot of bad press about the way he talks, but I have to say, if you can't get big words to come out your mouth right, you might as well make good use of small ones. About two days after the attack, in the context of discussing prudence and caution in determining retaliatory strategy, he said, "I'm not going to shoot a 2 million dollar missile at a ten-dollar empty tent and hit a camel in the butt." While I'm not sure I know how in an empty tent there would be a camel upon whose butt hitting would transpire, the image made me smile. And that was a good thing.

--Lara N.

FROM THE FACT FILE: ANNOUNCING THE WINNER

With the Program

You can take another look at the clues by looking at July's Fact File.

The answers:
1. Hill Street Blues
2. Father Knows Best
3. Bagdad Cafe
4. I Spy
5. Beverly Hills 90210
6. Family Ties
7. Rhoda
8. Gentle Ben
9. The Waltons
10. I Love Lucy

This year's Walk for Diabetes takes place Saturday, October 6. The library has had a team of walkers participate for at least the past 3 years, and hopefully we'll do so again this year. Last year's team was quite small, but we were very determined and raised a nice sum of money for diabetes research. (And don't forget that as a result of our participation we've also been able to donate money to your LSA.)

The course is 5 miles (I believe) along the banks of the Willamette River; there's also a shorter route available. It's fun, it's a beautiful walk, it's invigorating, and you might just get to know someone you haven't yet had the opportunity to. (I know, I ended the sentence with a preposition - so sue me.)

If you're interested in walking this year, please contact me at x6-1817 or at cbell@darkwing. I should be getting the packet of materials in the mail in the next few days. A call for folks interested in donating will be made as soon as we have a team of walkers.

Submitted by Colleen Bell

Been to an interesting conference? Or anything else at all you'd like to write up?

Send us a brief report for publication in the next newsletter. You can send anything you like that's fit for mixed company. We'll take stories, poems, art, whatever. If you aren't sure if something would be an appropriate contribution, feel free to ask, too. Thanks!

Welcome to Travis Honea, Office Specialist 2 in Orbis.

Best Wishes to Yoon Kim in his new job in Washington, D. C.

Staff profiles: Mark Mimnaugh, Access Services