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Last year at one point I wrote about Joseph Campbell. At some point my dad watched the Bill Moyers interviews with the great expert on myths and became intrigued by his philosophy. Dad was quite taken with what Mr. Campbell had to say and he bought a few books and tried to talk to others about Campbell’s world-view.

I love my dad and would listen to what he had to say. Sometimes I would miss the point. Other times, I wasn’t ready for the message. Back in the 1970’s my dad’s mentor Al Capen put him on to JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. My sister and one brother read them and really enjoyed the stories. But I had the hardest time getting started with it. Perhaps it contradicted the stories I had in my head at the time and I didn’t have room for Hobbitses and Elves and Gollum.

Eventually I read Tolkein’s stories and loved them. In like manner I have been making my way through Joseph Campbell’s The Power of Myth. It is a bit of a challenge. One challenge is just reading what Campbell has to say and synthesizing it. Another challenge is deciding what to do about the awareness the book brings.

Last week I finished another chapter and staring me in the face is a new chapter Follow your Bliss. I haven’t started to read it, but I have looked around the Joseph Campbell website. Something tells me that my current job is not going to be where I find my bliss. Just a hunch.

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Earlier today I sent an email to a friend and referred to another person as aloof. I like the word aloof. I don’t ever act aloof myself- I’m generally more engaged than that and, I hope, friendly.

But using the word put me in mind of a few other words that I like to use and only use occasionally. Sometimes when playing Scrabble© I’ve had the tiles to make a word and thought - that’s a really nice word. One time it was the word Ivory. Yes - both the V and the Y are four point tiles, but it wasn’t the score; the word just looked nice. It is also a nice word to pronounce - the V sets off a nice vibration of the teeth against the lower lip. Ivory.

A couple of other words I like are albeit and nevertheless. Both words are fun because they are combined from other words.

Moot is a fun word, though many use it incorrectly.

I former supervisor - a truly inspiring woman would use the word nonce. Dictionary.com defines the word as - the present, or immediate, occasion or purpose.

Back in the last century - okay, it was 1995 - there was an excellent film titled Braveheart. Some in the Gay community were upset with a scene in the movie where King Edward II tosses his son’s boyfriend (and War Counselor) out a window. Some in the Gay community saw this as director Mel Gibson’s distaste for homosexuals.

When I finally saw the movie it occured to me that King Edward tossed the man out the window because he a twit and out of bounds - not because he was a homosexual. Well - not that King Edward was a charter member of PFLAG or anything.

So on a movie discussion group - I was writing about the scene and had the fun of using a seldom-used word - defenestration. Not only is it a cool word - it is a term that one hardly gets to use - ever! The major exception is European History - when one studies the Defenestration of Prague.

What’s your favorite word?

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Today our staff sat through a motivational film about creativity. The presenter in the film was a photographer from the National Geographic and he talked about being creative and looking for all the right answers.

His examples came from the photographs he took. Sometimes he needed to change lenses; other times he had to change location or even time of day to get the photograph he wanted. Many of his photographs were beautiful, but you could see that by striving to look for what he called the next right answer he’d get a different photograph and sometimes an amazing photograph. I have taken photographs, so I understand that concept.

This put me in mind of a lesson I learned when someone told me a story about a bonsai master who was in Washington, DC to prune one of the bonsais at the National Arboretum.

There are many bonsais in the national collection, some were gifts from Japan and China at the time of the US Bicentennial in 1976 and even then the trees were over 200 years old. The Arboretum hired this bonsai master to come to the US and give a presentation on the tree and describe how he was going to prune it and then prune it with an audience watching.

The day came and he stood at the front of the room and using a white handkerchief to cover the parts of the tree he was going to remove he described the pruning. He was planning to change the shape and look of the tree in a dramatic way. Then he asked for questions.

One bonsai enthusiast in attendance raised his hand and described a way in which he might prune the tree, which branches he would remove to change the tree in a different way.

The bonsai master looked at the tree and walked around it and looked some more. Then he did something ingenious - he left the stage and walked out to where the man was standing to see the tree from there. Then he could see what the man was saying.

The bonsai master then did something remarkable. He returned to the stage and said the pruning I planned for this tree is a good pruning and would change this tree and make it beautiful. But I like this other man’s idea. So I will prune the tree as he suggests.

When I heard that story the first time - I was floored. What a tremendous confidence and, at the same time, selflessness. The master was completely comfortable with the plan he had - that it was a good plan. And he was open to other ideas. He was still the master and it was still his decision what to do. To my amazement, he was able to choose the other person’s idea and embrace and reshape the tree in a different way.

I hope that I can be like that bonsai master.

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According to an article on Scientificblogging.com - Worrying can kill you.

Okay - so this doesn’t exactly vindicate me for being lazy - but other attributes that contribute to my carefree attitude suggest that I’m healthier than the neurotic, hand-wringing types.

Neuroticism is the tendency toward hand wringing and negative thinking. People with a heavy dose of neuroticism do not handle stress well, and are often anxious and moody.

The article reports on a study by Purdue University Daniel Mroczek of 1600 men. The men were studied over a twelve year period and looking at the degree to which they were neurotic and how it changed over time, and he looked at their mortalitiy risk.

As reported in the May issue of Psychological Science, those who increased over time in neuroticism was a ticket to an early grave. In other words, these men—all middle age or older to begin with—did not grow old gracefully. They likely got more and more stressed, worried or fretful, and this downward spiral increased their risk for dying, mostly from cancer and heart disease.

So - in other words… Non Bastardum Carborundum!

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Last night I was at band practice - since I play trombone I sit toward the back. Our Assistant Conductor was on the podium and the Conductor was in the back and he asked me why I had my music stand so close and to my right.

Because of bifocals I felt I could see the music better from there. He continued that I was looking down and that was probably obstructing my breathing, plus how could I see the conductor.

To my surprise, I cancelled my desire to be defensive and said I’d work on it. Since he was able to observe what I was doing in a way that I couldn’t I figured I should consider what he had to say. I adjusted my music stand and tried to pay a bit more attention to how I was playing. Next I need to bring my better music stand and adjust myself to playing with that.

It is amazing how our egos can interfere with improving ourselves. I actually considered arguing with him - which would have gotten us nowhere.

Of course - his approach was good. Rather than start by telling me I was doing something wrong - he asked why was I doing something in the manner I was. The question wasn’t as threatening. Always have to learn, don’t we?

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Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to make today worth remembering.

- Professor Harold Hill, The Music Man, written by Meredith Willson.

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Several years ago the ALA Conference was held in DC and I was planning to attend. I looked over the schedule and I was overwhelmed! For several years I had gone to Computers in Libraries and I always found that a manageable conference. But ALA was HUGE! My colleagues weren’t terribly helpful as I recall. As the conference date got closer something came up or I got sick and I ended up not attending.

So in 2004 I finally attended my first SLA Conference. One of the reasons was my boss didn’t want to go to Nashville. (If I ever get to be a supervisor - I hope I do a little better in that regard.) I started looking at the program for that conference and again felt overwhelmed. But I noticed a session for First-time attendees - so I went. I also got a special tag to wear so I was marked as an SLA Virgin and others were supposed to make me feel welcome.

The First-timers session was really good. The SLA Folks did a good job of welcoming all of us. And there was a real spectrum of folks who had never been to SLA before. There was less success of folks walking up and chatting me up. Still I met a few folks and found the conference, as a whole, really good.

So as I look forward to this year’s conference I am thinking about the folks who will be attending SLA for the first time. Take a look at the Tips for First Timers. Get your special color-coded tag for your name tag. Trust me it is a good ice breaker.

How are you enjoying your first SLA Conference? is a better come-on than Come here often? Also, don’t be afraid to talk to people at your session - they may have similar interests if they are attending the same talk on Agri-libraries. Go to the division breakfast or hospitality suite - have a glass of wine (but don’t blow your recovery!) and prepare your smile, firm handshake and introduce yourself to folks.

Unfortunately - I’ve not been able to convince SLA to let me give a workshop on making conversation - you know, how to talk about something other than circulation, metadata and Web 2.0. The benefits of a Liberal Arts Education.

sla2007

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