I’m happy to share that the plumbers did a great job yesterday with the gas lines. They finished around 4:00 in the afternoon and when I looked into the trench before they filled it I thought their work looked impressive. I was happy. I paid them what they quoted me and they delivered on the agreement. Today I have felt at ease.
I’ve been listening to music this morning while I painted. I needed something relaxing and chose Lord Huron channel on Pandora. I worked on Molly Pruitt Library and I think I’m done. I painted clouds and I’m not quite sure how I feel about them. I haven’t painted clouds much and it was’t as easy as I thought it would be. I didn’t actually think it would be easy, but I thought I could capture the essence by looking at the photo. I need some more practice. I’m going to sit with it tonight and see how I feel. I don’t think there’s more I can do at this point, so I may go with it even though I’m not that crazy about it.
I’ve heard a few people talk about libraries as ground zero for politics these days. At first i thought I must have heard wrong but I went back and listened again and sure enough people in the news, on podcasts, are referring to bookbinding and how difficult it is these days for librarians. I guess I hadn’t thought much about the book banning that’s been going on over the past few months. Apparently, conservatives want LGBTQ+ books banned from school libraries and a lot of librarians are fighting back.
I was bummed to hear this because choosing to paint libraries was not political for me. In fact, part of me thought libraries would be a great subject because they’re apolitical. So now I’m not sure where this is going to take me. I wanted to show appreciation for the fact that I can go to the library and look for books that are informative and/or entertaining. I was a self-help junkie. I remember going to a New Age bookstore in 1993 to find a self-help book I was interested in. It wasn’t a mainstream genre.
But then I found the library and realized that they had plenty of self-help books - John Bradshaw, Judith Orloff, Harriett Lerner were some of my favorites. I even got Marianne Williamson’s A Return To Love from the library. I heard a librarian on a podcast saying there is a particular student who hangs out in the library, who’s a reader, who’s searching for their identity, their selfhood through books and that she’s an advocate for those students. She was involved in a pretty high profile battle between the school board and the library and was successful. I was so proud of her when I heard that.
That’s the purpose of libraries. They are where we go to ask and answer big questions about ourselves, about life, about why we’re here. It sounds like a lot of librarians understand that, who understand what happens to someone when they find answers, when they discover worlds they feel safe in and excited about. I too believe that’s important. Books are a lifeline for some, for people who are curious, for seekers. If you’re curious, books can be essential. But if people with power over you take those books away they take away your ability to seek and learn and eventually know.
But what school boards and conservatives don’t understand is that it won’t end with one book. Eventually there will be another LGBTQ+ book that flies under their radar. People will become inspired by censorship to write about their own LGBTQ+ experience.
I can see a connection between kids reading about LGBTQ+ issues and kids reading about hate and white supremacy. Information can’t be controlled or censored. I’m biased because I think sexual identity is part of self-discovery, part of maturing and growing up. I can’t see bigotry and hatred as part of becoming a whole human being. But I guess if you’ve been raised to feel ashamed about your sexuality then LGBTQ+ issues can feel threatening, just like racism and white supremacy feel threatening to others.
People do violent things in the name of racism and white supremacy. But people also go to extremes in the name of sexual orientation and gender identity. To me, one is violent and the other extreme, but I guess that’s just one person’s opinion. I’ve heard it said that there’s a difference between being driven and being called. One is inspired by a higher power, the other is fueled by fear and lack. I’d like to think that Tans kids are being called and that white supremacists are driven. But again, I’m biased.