Monday, May 18, 2009

Secular Story

G
It all started with one big blast
B7
The singularity expanded fast
Am
Building blocks of matter came to be
D7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . D
They turned into atoms eventually

Matter was distributed evenly
Areas grew denser because gravity
Making the dust clouds that formed the stars
That gathered into galaxies just like ours

In the beginning the sun was alone
And then the planets made it their home
That’s the time the earth met the moon
Mysteriously life would come soon

Algae in the oceans made oxygen
Along came the fish with their fins
Out of the water they walked with their legs
Sweeping the planet egg by egg

They evolved into beautiful things
Like the birds that fly with their wings
The planet was host to so many animals
Soon it gave rise to the mammals

Creatures like whales returned to the sea
But some like monkey turned to the trees
After the ape came back down
We got a chance to come around

Man sought to dominate over nature
Little did he know what that would mean later
Overindulgence will lead to the end
And then the earth can try again

Livin' La Vida Librarian

Sometimes I fantasize about being a librarian. How lovely would it be to find yourself in the company of thousands of books on a daily basis? I imagine navigating the structured rows, running my finger across spines neatly nestled in their proper spot on the shelves. Occasionally plucking out a tome and opening the cover just to sniff the archaic musk of its leaves. Then wedge it back in between its close-knit neighbors.

I wonder if librarians measure the passage of time by the arrival of new additions and the retirement of outdated material. Do they tally the days by their accumulation of newsprint? Does a stack of periodicals symbolize a time frame or does it merely look like a mess to be chronologically filed away?

Can they profile a person by books they read? Could they give an accurate checkout history of someone they pass on the street? At a glance, do they assess one’s personality in terms of authors? I can her inner monologue, “Oh yes, he’s a heaping portion of Hemingway doused in Palahniuk with a pinch of Whitman. She is Huxley intermingled with Thoreau seasoned with Salinger and Seuss. Goodness me, here comes Hitchcock polka-dotted with Poe!” Are these the thoughts that cloud the space behind her horn-rimmed glasses?

I ponder about the irks and perks of working with books. Does the hushed environment make the outside world sound violently deafening? Do the stifled voices and fluttering pages fade into the silence? Or are they amplified noise pollution echoing though out the library? What bothers her more disordered dewy decimal or belated book returns? Damaged books or damned librarian stereotypes?