post #14

Most of this week, I felt dumb, mostly due to the fact that I’ve had an increasing number of procrastinator-tax-filers who don’t know what forms to fill. That, and chance. Twice I’ve had patrons try their hardest to make me feel inferior. I must say, on the inside, it worked, but I can’t let them know that too easy.

One boy could have jumped on that bandwagon, but thankfully did not, as we do have an Xbox system that we reference workers must hook up whenever a youngster would like to use it. I had to have him teach me the ropes because it hadn’t been set up that day. He was so nice about it. I wanted to hug him.

Thankfully, the weekend was far more amusing. When I was on my break, I was eating in the cafe, and there was a 40+ woman there who seemed (by her way of conversing and demeanor) she may have a slight mental disorder. Across from me, at another table, were two young college girls, very fashionable, very – sorority-like. One of the girls was positioned so that her left hand displayed a lovely engagement ring. The older woman approached this girl and the conversation was simply:

“Who are you engaged to?”
(the girl said a name)
“Oh yeah? I used to date him once.”

And that situation right there gives me one more reason why I really love people. In my head, I re-enact my witty, sarcastic conversation with her, that you know I wouldn’t have in real life because it would be mean. But the thoughts were funny (out of this context of who the woman appeared to be). “you need to tell me all his secrets!”

That day, I also weeded out a lot of the Self-Help books. It was such a TREAT! I can owe it to the fact that my heart has been captivated by a loving, relational God, that it saddens me to see how people try to fill their lives with temporal solutions. 3-day self-help solutions? How long will they last? It’s as if these authors are pimps of happiness. That’s right, happiness is a prostitute, joy is a wife. [side note: this is dangerous territory. working at a library, I'm "supposed" to be a neutral container, which can get very difficult because I'm very opinionated]. Oh and another thing – why do many self-help books feature the face of the author on the cover? Is it supposed to be a “help yourself be like me”? *sigh* Anyway, some of these HAD to have been some of my all-time favorite titles! NOTHING compares to the first one:

All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek

Success Is Never Ending, Failure Is Never Final

You Owe Me!

The Positive Power of Negative Thinking

Happiness is a Serious Problem

Why Is This Happening to Me? : And What YOU Can Do About It!

Eventually I reached the morals/ethics section, and it depressed me to have to weed out almost everything because the books were in our collection since late 80s – 90s. What does that say? Collection Development has no interest in growing morals? Or authors nowadays aren’t writing anything? Of course, it could be any number of reasons, but it definitely makes me wonder why we have an increase of self-help books, and not enough morals or ethics. There could be a possible correlation. Possibly.

I couldn’t finish my project because I was also helping a college student research eight Supreme Court Cases. Sometimes I really feel like I go over and beyond. And I’m not saying that in a prideful manner, I mean, I don’t know why I do so much if they don’t need the information, or it goes unnoticed, or they could do it themselves and I could save time.

Oh well. I need to make a separate post for Sunday. Else.