Free Range Librarian Peeps Again

Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Library Blog.

At 4:52 p.m. Pacific Time today, November 5 (and Roy Rogers’ birthday), I ceased what has been essentially a two-year writing silence, if you don’t count a few hundred entries in lii.org (and I don’t, not that I don’t have a very cool day job).

From now until the well runs dry–and let me tell you, this is one very deep well, even if the water is often brackish–every day, and I mean every day, barring natural or technological disaster, I’m posting to Free Range Librarian.

Most of that silence was self-imposed–not because I never had anything to say, but because I wanted to let the ground lie fallow while the seasons changed and the rain fell.

Some of that silence came because I had given up a very good writing gig at American Libraries and without the discipline of an editor nudging me to write–not to mention the security of an editor grooming my language and saving me from huge literary faux pas–well, it just didn’t happen.

I refuse to say I was “busy” because I absolutely despise that expression. As in, “how do you ever find the time to [fill in blank]? I never could–I’m just so busy!”

As opposed to the rest of us, lounging in hammocks and snacking on chocolate bonbons? Look, I’m sorry some folks have such poor life skills that even the thought of juggling a day job with the occasional, personal-time post to a library discussion list send them into a panic. But plenty of people work, teach, write, take care of families, have real hobbies, get through at least one newspaper, make time for their favorite flavors of Law and Order, and manage to participate in professional discussions.

No, it’s not for lack of time, real or perceived. Maybe I needed to do more reading (which I have done) and experience some of the fresh new writing on the Web (which I am doing) or simply bide a wee in my rose garden, contemplating buds as they opened.

I can state quite soberly that trifocals have pushed me into writing again. Reaching my mid-40s has not been a big deal. Achieving triple-lens status caught my attention. Age is now unavoidably written on my face–in its creases and spots, and now with these lined spectacles perched on my nose.

This isn’t about grieving over the aging process. I wouldn’t be young again; aging rocks, if you don’t mind the way everything on your body starts slipping southward. It’s about time management–about not being so “busy” that I don’t have time to write.

I assume I’m about halfway through my life right now, and here I have two industry books and a pile of magazine articles under my belt. Not that there’s anything wrong with that… but I see myself on the pivot point of my life, and if I really am going to write, then it’s time to piss or get off the pot.

Tomorrow’s entry will be more library-related. I may cry you a river, in fact, because I’m dashing off to a local emergency hearing to discuss the severe cuts to our local public library. When are people going to learn that 10% “across the board” is much more devastating to libraries and other services that start with less?