Article: The Sad, Beautiful Fact that We're All Going to Miss Almost Everything

I don't write personal posts very often, but I came across this article through my Google Reader today: The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We're All Going to Miss Almost Everything by Linda Holmes (and stole the picture from the article too), and made me think about the ideas of being well read and being a librarian.  One of the biggest struggles I have in being a librarian is that I don't know that I'll ever be one of "the Greats" like Joyce Valenza, Buffy Hamilton or even Di Herald and Becky Johnson.  If those names mean nothing to you, let me try to put it in other terms:  I fear that I will be a D list actor.  Someone who tries to make a living doing something well, but just can't make it happen.  I will try my darndest to read all the award winning books (which is not evidenced by my blog, I read lots more books than I take the time to review) and keep up with constantly evolving technology, but how do I find time in the day?  And reading Holmes' article really articulated the conclusion I've come to in the past few weeks.  The simple fact is, I'm not ever going to be one of "the Greats" - in Libraryland or even as a German teacher, if I ever end up back in the classroom again - but I'm not sure I want to be one.  I will, as Holmes said "make a genuine effort to explore thoughtfully", but I don't know that being "great" is so important to me that I'm willing to give up everything else just to get there.  I think, instead I'll strive to be great for my family, my friends, my school community and my church community.  That way I can think I'm great - as long as I stay in my little geographic world.

Another reason this article struck a chord with me today is I recently recieved a comment on one of my older blog posts (uh, YEAY!!!) and because this doesn't happen often, I immediately posted the comment.  Then I realized that I didn't really like or agree with the comment, which thrust me into a conflict of  whether or not I would post all comments or if I would only post comments that added to the blog in some way.  Now, I realize that the person who made the somewhat snarky comment about my enjoyment of the Twilight Series was probably doing lots of culling and might benefit from a little more surrender.  My hero, Di Herald, always tells kids in my book club that no two people ever read the same book.  So to Anonymous from Singapore - first, I doubt you'll read my blog again, so I'm probably wasting my breath here, and second, I'm sure there are books out there that you have read and enjoyed that would make me question your professional judgement as well.

In any case, I have decided to post all comments, and hopefully, as more people read my blog, the will all remember that I am but one person dipping from the ocean of books available to us.  My opinion is about as important as everyone else's, so if you don't like a book I recommend, just remember, this is blog isquasi-pointless.  It says so in the title.

{And Suzanne steps down from her soapbox, waves lovingly at her fans, and exits stage right}.