It's hard to be grumpy with no energy, though it was probably a blessing for John Q. Public. Usually I'm frenetically in a bad mood and then the bad sh!t happens. I was just too tired to take it out on anyone. Not that I didn't have ample opportunity. My first 3 or 4 patrons of the day were in worse shape than me and fully willing and able to show it but I gave them the standard cheerful grin and ignored the waves of antagonism rolling off. Really people, 9am on a Monday is far too early to chew anybody's @$$, much less mine.
From a work point of view, we are kicking @$$ and taking names at work. The adult summer reading program was another rousing success this year and the fall lineup of programs ROCKS! We have several day trips planned to area museums and attractions in conjunction with the Birmingham Museum of Art exhibit Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery as well as the library's annual wine and food festival AND we've booked Mary Kay Andrews in October!
Life-wise, I really shouldn't be able to find anything to complain about, but rest assured that I do. Maybe it's the lack of outside stimuli. I don't subscribe to periodicals and I don't have cable, satellite, or a converter box so no tv stations, just an active Netflix account. I do read the front page of the newspapers when I put them out at work and I listen to NPR and I have steady access to the internet so I'm not completely under a rock but I am sheltered from the nanosecond news cycle that everyone else is constantly exposed to. Should I be ashamed that this makes me happy? Oh well, it is what it is.
By the way, a philosophy for which I was criticized by a patron last week for having. Whatever. He probably wouldn't be too happy about the "whatever" either. I am not an activist. Maybe I'll be led to such activity at some point in my life, but I'm not right now though I have made what I consider to be very positive changes in my life.
I stopped gratuitously using paper products. I eat WAY less meat than I ever have in my entire life, though that's a financial point rather than an ethical one. I drive a high MPG, subcompact car and I drive that car slowly. I unplug all the electronics that I don't use daily. I leave my thermostat on 80 unless I just am about to have a comeapart. I read books/articles/websites on environmentalism and sustainability and implement ideas where I have time and resources.
Do we all have to be warriors? Do we all have to give orders and come up with plans? Are not the steady workerbees just as important to the hive? Is a grass roots effort made up only of the militantly faithful? Am I a bad person because I am not fervent about much at all, with the possible exception of high fructose corn syrup avoidance? I want to live, be the best human being I can manage to be, and be hopeful of the possibility of helping a few people along the way. That is all. It is wealth to me.
No comments:
Post a Comment