Month: July 2022

The primary reason why my wife and I selected our present place of residence seems now pointless given that our income generation has no longer a geographic requirement. There is one item from my “nice to have” list when selecting this home (it made the cut), that has now become a must have: Namely,  living within reasonable distance from the public library. I find myself spending more and more time here (yes, I’m typing this at the nearest of two libraries in my small town), and utilizing ever more of the many resources.  

The Library of things.

I just returned a board game. I do have some board games at home, but my library lends games and puzzles of all kinds, and for all ages. Obviously I enjoy saving money, and the impact of being able to share resources within the community. But the value to me goes beyond that. I live in a small home. Not tiny-house small, but roughly half the size of the average modern home. So we have to watch the amount of stuff we bring in. Therefore having the ability to easily borrow things like games, toys, musical instruments, telescopes, slide projectors, wood burning kits, 3D printers (ok, you have to use that on-site) is quite the problem solver. As I am typing this, a woman just checked out a WiFi hot spot, because the internet at her home had gone out, and she needed to continue working. How great is that?

Magazines and newspapers.

To me, these present a two-fold problem: The bigger one is when one enters my home, I now feel compelled to read it, lest it be a total waste. Thus every periodical which enters my home represents an obligation. As someone who values freedom, I strive to keep obligations to a minimum. Then there is the second waste of disposing of it, read or not. Digital subscriptions are one way to address this, but that’s not for me. While I enjoy creating on the digital, paper is my preferred medium for consumption. I’ve discovered my library stocks all of the titles I was reading, and since I am usually just interested in an article or two, they don’t even come home with me. The truth is, I rarely even look at them now, but it’s nice to know I can if I want to.

Workspace. 

I’m taking a distance learning class right now. Having earned my undergrad online, I’m no stranger to this. However, that was at a time when my home was empty during the day, and I could go into my place of work and reserve a conference room at any time. No longer, but I can reserve a private room at the library if I need to take an exam, or such. Although I’m normally just with my laptop at a table, sometimes by the fireplace. The library is my office. 

A/V. 

Streaming music is amazing, but I don’t listen often enough to feel I’m getting my money’s worth on any of the platforms. I really just listen when I’m in the car by myself, which is only a few minutes on any typical day. But there’s always a disk from the library in there if I want something other than silence (or ad-laden radio). Audiobooks are great, and I listened to a ton when I used to have a long commute. I listen to exactly three podcasts, and will still throw an audiobook in the mix now and then. As a family, we schedule one to three films per week to watch together, thus I’ve found video streaming to be worth the cost. We will still occasionally borrow a film if we can’t get it on one of the streaming services.

Refuge.

In most locales in which I’ve resided, public libraries are the place where the homeless can get out of the cold for a bit. While this is a function I wish didn’t need to exist, it’s an important benefit.

I seldom purchase books. 

Yeah, this one seems obvious, but I take it further than I used to: When I want to read a title that isn’t available to borrow, I request it for purchase. While novels are my preferred genre, these purchase requests are usually newer non-fiction books I’ve heard about. In each and every case the library has approved my request. I don’t have to own it, and the community can benefit as well. 

My kids are well read. 

My wife and I were able to instill a solid daily reading habit from birth in both of our kids (now 4 and 7). One of the benefits of having only scheduled screen time, is that they both are voracious readers (the younger still needs to be read to, but he asks for it incessantly). Right now I have 46 items checked out, and that’s my card alone. My wife takes the kids at least once per week herself, and has a good number checked out as well. When the kids aren’t in school or summer camp, my checkouts have hit as high as 70 titles. And yes, every single book is read, often multiple times.

I’m saving quite a bit of money.

Another obvious one. But have you ever stopped to calculate the savings? Well let’s see: In the past three years, I’ve borrowed 931 items from my library. Figuring an average price of $12 per item (and that’s got to be low), that works out to $11,172, or $3,724 of value per year. Dang, that’s about half of what I pay the town in property tax coming right back to me (stickin’ it to the man!). But you would never actually purchase that many books, you say. And yes, that’s rather the point: I’m able to live this lavish life with all of the knowledge and entertainment I could ever want for me and my family, never mind that it costs me nothing aside from the taxes I am compelled to pay (and the occasional late fee). 

I think public libraries are indispensable. Stop by, if you haven’t been to yours in a while.

-Wilson

Do you drive a motor vehicle? 

Does it feature a working horn? 

Where I live, I have the opportunity to hear the sound of vehicle horns regularly. I also drive a car with a working horn (yes, I’ve had at least one without). Subsequently, I’ve given this matter a certain, perhaps undue, amount of thought, and here is a list of times I feel horn use is and isn’t appropriate:

• The Golden Rule of horn use is this: If an opportunity arises to use a horn, but using the vehicle’s brakes would accomplish the same thing, it’s always better to use the brakes.

• When directly behind a vehicle stopped more than a couple of seconds at a newly green traffic light, and it’s obvious the driver isn’t waiting to make a left, or is otherwise having real trouble, an abbreviated, friendly toot can be a kindness both to the daydreaming / distracted driver ahead, and others waiting behind.

• Any sounding of the horn longer than one second, in any circumstance, is excessive. These are practically always done in anger. I strongly feel that the driver of a vehicle should not allow anger to rise. Yet it happens – we are human. There are much more effective ways of dealing with this, both in the moment, and in general. Making a scene only reveals your temper to the world.

• Do you sound the horn upon seeing someone you recognize? That’s not my style, but I see little wrong with it, aside from noise pollution.

• Do you sound the horn outside the home of someone you are picking up, so that they will know you have arrived? If the home in question has parking, park the car and walk to the door. If not, you are probably blocking the roadway in some fashion while you wait, and there is usually a better way to alert your passenger. In both scenarios, you are making unnecessary noise in a residential area.

• Do you sound two or three quick toots when leaving the home of someone you just visited? Congratulations, you are eligible for Social Security. Please save some for me.

• When driving through a tunnel with no other vehicles in view, do you roll down the windows, and sound the horn? So do I.

-Wilson

I’ve long suspected that freedom is a construct which simply does not work in societies. At least not on scale: As soon as a freedom is granted to me, it invariably impinges a freedom of someone else. There may be an exception I haven’t considered, but by and large, I believe this to be true. So long as people have the freedom to think, and form their own beliefs, we are going to bump heads.

I recently enjoyed a leisure excursion to the White Mountains area of New Hampshire, that provided me with food for thought on this matter. As a lifelong New Englander, I’m well familiar with the NH state motto: “Live free or die.” Now this motto is clearly derived from the colonial sentiment during the American revolution. It’s interesting to note, however, that this was adopted by New Hampshire as it’s first official state motto in the middle of the 20th century. In fact, the motto’s inclusion on the NH motor vehicle license plate began in 1971. So it would appear that freedom is still very much on the mind of the people of New Hampshire. 

So Live Free or Die, hmm. What does that mean in our present America, our present world? I have to say, while the people of NH may be passionate about the motto, I’ve long regarded it as hyperbole. I mean, come on, the colonies have not been under British rule for centuries. Therefore, I considered it to be either patriotism, or more likely, a statement on personal freedom. And that second point especially, I regard with a bit of prejudice: When I think of modern-day Americans espousing the ideals of personal freedom, I usually envision individuals who aim to assert their beliefs on what is morally right and just by which everyone must abide. This is in stark contrast to my own belief on the concept of freedom. In fact, it’s literally the opposite of the aim of democracy (another construct). This, however, was not my experience. While in New Hampshire, I saw communities of people seemingly willing to “live and let live.” A very refreshing two-way street take on the concept of personal freedom. It seems to be a place where one can be free to be ones-self. Of course the sampling of communities I experienced was small, and admittedly there were other tourists about. Nevertheless, it’s a feeling I haven’t felt in any place I’ve ever lived or traveled. And I wasn’t the only one in my small traveling group who noticed this.

Perhaps this is how things are as you venture farther away from big cities. Or perhaps, it’s what happens when a state government allows its people to act with just a little more autonomy. In any case, I’m looking forward to returning to New Hampshire.