The cost of growing

Last night I gave a tour of the library to a group of cub scouts. They were enthusiastic, asked good questions and were pretty damn cute. I felt happy as I left work, even though I put in a nearly 10 hour day. It made me think that my work is very worthwhile.

Today I had a mom tell me that she spoke to another dad about our expansion project, but he was not supportive. She's been informally talking to other parents and promoting the project. He wondered if the bond passed and his taxes affected, would that give priority to kids (specifically his) getting into programs over non-residents? I had to think about the question, since no one has ever mentioned this to me before. My initial response was that we won't need to limit who attends what because we will have adequate space for everyone with an expanded library. It made my stomach churn to think that someone would want us to limit things because the project will be funded primarily through municipal taxes, with additional private fundraising and grants. I said (out loud), the day the public library has to put such limitations on visitors is the day I don't want to be working there. Just because our taxes help pave the road doesn't mean that I own it. Why should the library be any different? Motherfuckers.

But now I am letting it go.

We watched Away From Her last night, which I found lovely but sad. I can see myself being married to L for 44 years but I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose him, either in death or in the case of the film, to Alzheimer's. There are wonderful literary references in the film and it's shot in Canada, not far from where L was raised. I'm a big Sarah Polley fan. She's also the star in the world's saddest movie, My Life Without Me. You may also have seen her on the TV series Ramona. Ramona Quimby is probably one of my first literary heroines. What spunk!