novembre ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- take time "Prior to the occurrence of a traumatic event or events, there are generally certain basic assumptions that guide your life. You probably believe that the world is kind, and that there is meaning to your life, and that things make sense. You believe that you are good and worthy of having good things happen to you (Janoff-Bulman 1992). Then trauma strikes. You are suddenly no longer in control of what has happened around you. You're vulnerable and your world is no longer safe and secure. Furthermore, you can't make sense of what is left over. The meaning of life that was present just a short time before is gone. Life is no longer fair and just. The first step in dealing with trauma is to recognize its impact. A traumatic event has many possible impacts. It can impact your feelings, thoughts, relationships, behaviors, attitudes, dreams, and hopes. However, it can also be a way to find a new direction and purpose in life. The title of this book was originally Schlogging beyond Trauma. That title evokes a journey."
Biographies were seldom read unless they were about contemporary heroes that came from humble beginnings. These underdogs should be proud of their worn books. Career books, indexes and reference books would be mouldering and yellowing. Fiction and art books would have entire sections missing, or a single page ripped out. I would look at a book sometimes and try to guess circulation, (which proved to be impossible to break down statistically due to the organics in the act of reading itself, but a more worn book versus a more beat up book, both equally trashed in their own ways, tell the person discarding them a lot. Some of the trashed books looked like one-rider horses set out to pasture, whereas the worn books felt like they were treated with care, and handled with respect, like the graceful elderly.) or what kind of person would be attracted to this? Or am I attracted to this? Or: how come this book looks like it was never read? (Or: that particular illustrator sure does interesting work for strange science fiction books. Hmmm. And then I'll google him.) Self-help books always had scores of highlighting and/or underlining, and notes in the margin (scrawlings across the title page, attempts at understanding new terminology in the flyleaf, the first few chapters underlined meticulously, sometimes with a ruler. Random words underlined, as if a garnish to the text). These trends are also very popular in religion/spirituality discards. Any book might cough up a receipt, grocery list or a photograph used as a bookmark. But I never see to-do lists or reminders written directly in the margins of anything but the self-help books. [*3/28 UPDATE! Came across a mystery with a list of other mystery titles written across the flyleaf today. I muttered at the careful, crooked, oversized and disjointed handwriting, as if I could will myself into the brain of that patron. Perhaps such an individual had no idea that most books list previously published works (especially in the same genre) by the author just a few pages in. I looked at the broken yet rounded scrawl, and saw the hand of someone who seldom writes, let alone writes lists. When I realized this, my heart tensed for a moment, and I felt not shame, but the sensations of someone else's life. I wondered at this patron's age, history, life. It's an amazing thing, a library, public learning. There is no prerequisite. It's just open. It's just there, waiting, and people use it as they may, or as they must.] 6:54 pm - 03.22.11 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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