FINAL WEEK: THE LIBRARY

I thought about something Tamela Mann said a few years ago during a TBN interview, "You have to set some kind of tone, because people get out of order...you go in to help..."
It's all I really wanted to do. Just help--in my own neighborhood. 

I have one more week on my assignment in the library at Patterson.

Today is Fathers' Day, and I thought about the times, when I was a child, that my Dad used to come home with books. I used to love looking at the titles. (I still remember opening "The Professional" and seeing Lyndon Johnson's autograph.) Some of the books were brand new or like-new, and like the books I've been handling for the past several days, they were considered by some, perhaps, unthinking someone to be invaluable, or unimportant. All my life I've known the value of reading. I want the kids I've met to know it, too. 

Thursday morning, I noticed I was a little emotional. It occurred to me that I only had a few more days. The "why?" of where you find yourself can be overwhelming when it becomes clearer. On Friday, witnessing the positive attitudes of teachers who've been fired from their jobs, spoke volumes for the resilience of the human spirit. 
One teacher walked in to her room to find it flooded, yet she brought her class to the library for breakfast, cleaned up, and still chaperoned her class on a trip to the circus. Another who had obviously been saddled with a disproportionate number of some of the most challenging students, was still heard encouraging them to be on their best behavior.
As  Monday approaches, however, I'm feeling a little proud of myself. I didn't quit--not when I wanted to, and not even when it would have been totally understandable. I've been called names, mocked, disrespected, and frustrated. I've been hit, what I tried to clean up was often messed up when I returned each day, and I even endured wannabe supervisors, but I've also been supported, appreciated, thanked, and encouraged. 

This week, I'm going to finish doctoring and offering the books that were almost discarded. The smiles on the faces of students and teachers as they walked away with classic, valuable, hardcover, out-of-print titles, made the effort worth it. From "Pippi Longstocking", to The Rock n' Pop Stars autobiography of Aretha Franklin, to Elizabeth Orton Jones' "Told Under the Magic Umbrella" to an early printing of Seslye Joslin's "What Do You Say, Dear", there was a lot to make book lovers happy--me, too.