24 Days of Thanks, 2011-Style

I bring you Dani’s Second-Annual, November list of Thanks (Better Late Than Never). Chockablock with over-earnestness, a smidge of cheekiness, and an occasional disregard for paradigms (even while enthusiastically participating in larger hegemonic structures).

 Day 1: I am thankful for my muses, all of them and all of you, but most especially for Partner. Somehow when I bounce words and ideas off of him, they come back to me making sense, and sense is good.

‎Day 2: I am thankful for the opportunity to watch people learn to read. There is so much magic in watching a person figure out how to untangle the squiggles and have the power to decode the textual communication that surrounds us.

‎Day 3: Today I am thankful for cold wind, especially those cold fronts that blow in during the night, giving us a break from the hot hot hot.

‎Day 4: Today I am thankful for Body Armor. From the top of the head to the reinforced drawers, may it always protect our soldiers (including my brother) from harm.

‎Day 5: I am thankful for cake. And bakers.

Day 6: Today I am thankful for Legos and for our local library’s Great Lego Build Off. The Sonars have been spent MANY hours this month building amazing things, trying to figure out what their entries will be.

‎Day 7: Today I am thankful for proximity—living close enough to walk or ride bikes in most of our day-to-day activities.

‎Day 8: I’m thankful for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Day 9: I am thankful for our health insurance. With allergies, infections, asthma, eyeglasses, teeth, hernias, and regular old bodily maintenance and prevention, I don’t know what we’d do without it. I wish everyone had affordable access to adequate coverage.

‎‎Day 10: I am thankful for the agitators, the skeptics, the questioners, and the people who just wouldn’t shut up in the face of something wrong. Change, progress, and improvement only happen when people are willing to stand up and say something.

Day 11 (Veteran’s Day): I am thankful for those who have chosen to serve our country, who fulfill the promises that our government makes in our name.

Day 12: I am thankful for packed Saturdays. For the many enrichment opportunities for the kids, and for the teachers, coaches, and volunteers who make these opportunities possible.

Day 13: I’m thankful for my seventh-grade keyboarding teacher, Mrs. Horcasitas, who taught me to touch type like the wind. Zoom zoom.

Day 14: I’m thankful for eyeglasses. Four out of five occupants of this house are now eyeglass wearers. Sonar X6 should really watch out.

Day 15: I am thankful for our fabulous piano teacher. Our days are now filled with bits and pieces of music. Tanya is structured and patient, and has given The Sonars a gift that they can carry with them for the rest of their lives.

Day 16: I am thankful for Librarians! They know how to find almost any bit of information you could want. They organize and protect ideas. Fiercely. Some might poetically call them the Guardians of the Flame of Knowledge. That sounds so sexy.  Which is great, because librarians ARE sexy.

Day 17: I’m so thankful for small kindnesses. For holding open the door for someone, for smiling and exchanging a few words, for compliments that are small coming from the giver, but huge for the receiver, for simple, warm-hearted gestures that cost nothing, but feel priceless.

Day 18 (I told you I’d catch up): I’m thankful for all of you. Whether it’s something you’ve read, the music you’re listening to, your thoughts, observations, or actions, you challenge me, you break my heart, you make me laugh, you make me dance, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. You people Rock My Socks Off!

Day 19: I am thankful for fruit loops. And friends to share them with.

Day 20: I am thankful for ICE. From the polar ice caps to the jingle in a drink to an ice pack for an injury (or sore typing wrists), I am so grateful for cold, solid, water.

Day 21: I’m thankful for internet access. Without it, I could not share this list with all of you quite as efficiently.

‎Day 21: I am thankful for antibiotics. We live in a world where they are often taken for granted and misapplied, but they quietly and unglamorously prevent serious illness and save lives every day.

Day 23: I am thankful for frustration. Weird, right? But when I get frustrated, I know I’ve reached a limit, I know I have a challenge to face, I know that I need to alter my course or bear down and push through to (hopefully) find the satisfaction of accomplishment on the other side.

Day 24: I’m thankful for holidays and vacations, chances to set aside the routine and be with people we love and do things we wouldn’t normally do, like make pie and marshmallows and roast turkey and stay up too late.

Day 29 (Bonus): I’m thankful for NaNoWriMo and the inspiration, motivation, and excitement that gets me to write down fresh ideas every fall.

Day 30 (Excess): I’m thankful for readers. And writers. And idea-sharers. And inspirers. And you. I’m very thankful for all of you.

A defense of Library Funding

The Texas Legislature’s budget proposal will cut 70 to 98% of funding for state library programs, gutting services and displacing higher costs onto local libraries. Libraries are essential places in our community, especially in small communities like ours.

Here is why libraries are so important:

Libraries enhance the future of our country by supporting the education of our children. Libraries extend learning by making knowledge both available and valuable.

Libraries make readers. In a library, even reluctant readers can find something that sparks an interest, lights a fire, matches or challenges their growing abilities, makes them want to read and know more.

Libraries build community. Bulletin boards, paperback swaps, children’s story time, book clubs, civic group meetings, educational workshops, reading support, job training. Libraries are a place for people to connect to other people. When my children were small, Mr. Kippy’s Story time was a place for me to be with my children and meet people with shared interests. Story time was a high point in our schedule and a valuable stop on our learning journey.

Libraries provide safe, cozy, and reassuring places to gather. Places to learn, to study, to work, to contemplate. Quiet places of knowledge, set aside for thinking and reading and learning.

Libraries are portals of knowledge. To the past and to the world outside our physical reach. History, novels, foreign language resources, newspapers, magazines, music, photography books, encyclopedias. The library is a place we can expand our knowledge reach and to keep learning even if we’re no longer in school.

Libraries provide resources and expertise for personal and professional development. Computer work stations, testing spaces, professional development books, self-help books, printing and copying resources, a place to check email, prepare for college entrance exams, or figure out how to find a better job. In a down economy, the library becomes an even more important place for people struggling with economic displacement or limitations.

Libraries are sources of reliable, credible, and stable information in a world where the internet sometimes flies too fast. While some would argue that a book doesn’t update fast enough to be reliable, the stability of information in a library means we have credible data when we need to make critical choices.

Libraries employ experts who know how to find information and media. We can sift through that data more efficiently with the assistance of librarians, who are trained to know how the information is organized, where to find the answers to our questions, and how to get our hands on resources that we need. Librarians are priceless.

Libraries are essential repositories of information in a democratic society. The free access to information allows citizens to make informed decisions and to fulfill civic responsibilities.

As author Philip Pullman so aptly put it in a recent protest of cuts to his local library, “Leave the libraries alone. You don’t know the value of what you’re looking after. It is too precious to destroy.”

Please oppose these drastic cuts to library services in Texas. Please protect the essential services that Texas libraries provide.

What can you do?

* Share this message.

* Contact your state representatives and local media.

* Visit your local library. Check out books. Read the bulletin board. Talk to the librarians. Be involved.

* Get more details through the Texas Library Association.