This started out as something different...

I don't really have much to say today.

BUT...I was poking around the Phillip S. Miller Library Website because I thought I should know more about my place of employment. When I decided to look at the history of the library I found this quote from March 1942....

"It is hoped by the committee that in these times of sacrifice and worry, when many of our usual forms of recreation are abandoned, that many people will seek and find the books in the library a source of unexpected relaxation and entertaining pleasure."

I don't know why but I found this quote strangely moving. You must remember...we had only OFFICIALLY been at war for few months in March of 42...but the effects of the war abroad must have been weighing on America since the Germans invaded Poland in 1939.

NOW...read this quote again very carefully...."when many of our usual forms of recreation are abandoned".

Think about that VERY carefully. It holds a TOTALLY different meaning in 2008 and than it did in 1942. People did not have television or computers or cell phones...if they even had a phone. Cars were a luxury item, there was no central air...and there were parts of the country in which people still used outhouses. People did not shop for groceries the way we do now,as the war drug on there was rationing of gasoline,sugar,steel and rubber... among other things...and a cup of coffee was less than a dime. AND..we did not have Amazon or a Barnes and Noble on every other corner where we could purchase books by the armload.

I "find the books in the library a source of unexpected relaxation and entertaining pleasure". every day. But I wonder what it must have been like then. How many people DID turn to books as a form of escape or relaxation. What books were they reading....

The Moon is Down
The Robe
Dragon Seed
See Here Private Hargrove
And Now Tomorrow
Brave Men
Forever Amber
So Well Remembered
The Song of Bernadette
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Little Prince

These were just a few bestsellers during the war.

I don't know...I just found it interesting to think about...it was a different time...A time before space travel or the Internet. A time before celebrities were heroes just because of their celebrity. Our heroes were soldiers...as were the people who gave up the simple pleasures of sugar and travel and stockings..the ones who planted victory gardens as their husbands and sons went off to war.

This did not begin as a commentary on war...but I think it might be worth mentioning that we once again have soldiers fighting on another continent and we give up NOTHING because of it. We still drive and bake and watch TV and spend 6 bucks on a cup of coffee and 10 bucks on a movie and watch stupid sitcoms in our air-conditioned houses WHILE surfing the web AND talking on our cellphone.

MAYBE...JUST MAYBE...that's why our soldiers are still fighting a war that we have almost forgotten. A war in which soldiers are still dying.

I DON'T KNOW...It's just a thought...maybe one we should ALL be considering.

And MAYBE...JUST MAYBE...we could remember to say a little prayer for our soldiers and an end to this war each time we pump gas, or drink coffee.....or pick up a book.

Thanks to all of you who have served, are serving and will serve our country.