Month: December 2019

A Change this way Comes!

B

It’s been a year. A long year. A fun year!

We’ve discussed the importance of diversity in literature!

We’ve looked at some of my favorite books!

We’ve looked at the way books shape our lives!

We’ve looked at some silly mistakes I’ve made!!

And now it’s time for a change.

My time as a librarian came to an end at the end of October. I’m now a barista at a local coffees shop. I just needed a change. Something new.

But the last year, getting to write as the Sparkling Librarian has been so rewarding! Thank you so much for allowing me the honor of writing to you all. It has truly been my privilege to know that someone is reading what I write, and I have not taken that responsibility lightly.

So a change! I’m starting a different blog. As much as I’ve loved this, it’s time to move on. To make a clean break. So as of January 1, 2020 you can find me at my new site!

Sparkly Musings of Illogical Proportions

This is a dream I’ve had for quite awhile. I’ve had the name picked out since back in 2018 and it’s finally coming true. I’ll continue to write about books, but this new blog will allow me to share more of my deep thoughts. More of the things that challenge me. More of … well more of me. My love of books is just one small part of me- so here’s to new beginnings.

I promise there will still be sparkles. I hope you’ll join me on my new adventure, but regardless- thank you for honoring me with your attention this past year.

Keep Sparkling,

B

Valuing the “other”

B

Being different is awesome! I totally love how different I am from other people. I make weird faces, I dress is outlandish outfits. It’s awesome. But sometimes it feels like it’s not always appreciated by those who are looking for diversity.

Diversity in Literature is a huge topic. This is one of the most argued topics in YA literature right now. Diversity. It’s a big word. But does “Diversity” mean that we ignore some topics in order to cover “diverse” topics? I’d like to propose that we need to look beyond “diversity” to “otherness”.

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, at some point in your life you will be the “other”. Whether you are a Caucasian male or a Hispanic female or a Spanish Catholic or an Irish Protestant, at some point you will be the “other” in a situation. As an unmarried woman, I have found myself often in the “other” category when I am with my married friends. When I am with my friends who are still in college, I am the “other”. When I am with my male friends, I am the “other”. I bet you’ve recognized yourself as the “other” a time or two.

Being the “other” can put you in a position of great power or great victimization. You get to choose. You can feel sorry for yourself because you don’t fit in. You can wallow in your feelings of not being “enough”. Or you can choose differently- You can choose to see that you have a unique perspective and that perspective is needed. You get to choose what you offer to the world.

But there is power in realizing that you are not the only person who has ever felt like an “other”. There is always someone in a group that feels like an “other”.

I recently attended a bridal shower for someone very dear to me. I was trying to get someone’s attention. I addressed them by name, there wasn’t anyone around to distract them but they very pointedly walked away from me and towards someone else. I know they heard me, and yet they ignored me. They put me in the place of being the “other”. The unwanted, the unseen.

The way we respond to the presence of another person is powerful. We can choose to affirm their presence and show them they are wanted. Or, we can ignore their presence and let them know that we do not value what they have to say or what they want to share.

If you’ve read my blog before, you know I love Brene’ Brown. She wrote a blog about Toni Morrison’s talk on Oprah. Brene Brown shared how Morrison talked about your initial reaction when your child walks in the room. Does your face light up? Does your face reflect your desire to have that person’s presence in your life? Or do you look to criticize? Do you look at them and immediately flick your eyes off to the side so you won’t have to interact?

Ignoring a person or shutting them down shuts down their spirit. I felt so little when I was ignored at the bridal shower. I felt so unvalued and unwanted. But the truth is, it doesn’t matter what that person thought of me. It doesn’t matter if they want my opinion. So I was the “other” in this situation- so what. The bride saw me and her face lit up. She showed me that my presence was wanted. She did as Morrison suggested and affirmed my presence by reflecting her delight in me on her face.

We each have our people. Our people who love us and want us around. If you don’t have those people in your life, please let me know! I want to be one of your people! I’d be happy to show you just how delighted I am by your presence. But decide that the voice of your people matter more than the voice of those trying to keep you as the “other”.

Let’s go delight in “others” this week!

Keep Sparkling

B

The Things I don’t Know

B

“You don’t know what you don’t know until you know.”

There’s a lot I don’t know. I will be the first to admit that. I don’t know how atoms really make everything up. I think I get the concept but I’m not actually sure I know how it works. I don’t know how to build a house. My Dad does. He’s a contractor. I know the basic concepts but I don’t know the execution.

There’s something that makes me super aware of what I don’t know. That would be a big two word thing. A big thing that makes lots of people uncomfortable. Here we go- Political Correctness.

I try hard to be politically correct. I really do. But there is always something changing! There is always a new correct term. And besides that- there’s always someone waiting to be offended. Some people have genuine reason to be upset but sometimes the language changes. And sometimes people just have different preferences.

My sister has dark skin and she told me she prefers to be called “brown” and not “black”. One of my friends from college has dark skin and they told me they prefer to be called “black” and not “brown”. So which is it? What do I do?

Here’s the key to all this- having grace for those that don’t know what they don’t know. There’s a lot I don’t know. There are a lot of things I don’t get. It can take me awhile to catch on to a joke, which means it can also take me awhile to know that something isn’t politically correct. Since things change so quickly, politely correct me. That’s all it takes. Jacqueline Woodson’s audiobook Harbor Me has a very interesting conversation at the end. She discusses having grace for those who don’t know what they don’t know. She suggests that we have grace and politely correct others, instead of choosing to be offended at their lack of knowledge.

This is one of the reasons I love to read books about people who are different than me. They have different experiences and I can learn from them! I don’t have to be them to learn from their mistakes and their experiences. I have never been a dark skinned man. But I can learn about the experiences of a dark skinned man in the books that I read. I have never been a woman of Latino descent, but I can learn a lot about what it is like to grow up as one from reading a book from that viewpoint. Yay Diversity in Literature!

We are all just trying our best here. Let’s learn to have grace and politely correct each other instead of choosing to be offended.

Keep Sparkling,

B

Stop Giving me Details. I don’t want them.

B

Stop giving me details. I don’t want them. I promise! I have an imagination. I can fill in some of the gaps myself!

So many books you find want to give you every. single. detail! It is exhausting to read! If a sentence takes 45 words, I probably don’t want to read it. “The waning moon shown its soft, serene, quiet light upon the sleeping world that had not a sound but the low, hooting of an owl as it perched on its branch as if it was watching all the world slumber, ready to defend it to the end of the line.” That’s nice once in awhile, but three pages of descriptions gets a little long.

When I was growing up my dad often said to me, “Give me the short version.” I loved to give details! I loved to be able to tell you every important moment of the story. I even left out some really good ones! Eventually, I came to realize that those details weren’t as important as I though they were. They were nice, but not necessary.

One guy I knew, when telling someone how he knew me, wouldn’t just say, “We were involved in ministry and our paths crossed.” NO! He had to tell people who it was that invited him to an event and what he was involved in with this person previously and where the event was held and who he rode there with and how he came to no other events like this and how he was talking to this person when I walked up to talk to someone else and then that person’s dad introduced me to someone else… and blah blah blah! It was exhausting! A 5 second explanation worked just as well as the 5 minute one he wanted to tell.

I recently read Eragon for the very first time. I slogged my way through most of the book. Then I got to the last hundred pages, things started moving, and now I want to read the rest. But it shouldn’t take me that long to know I want to keep reading. Paladini is awful lucky I don’t like not finishing a book I start.

In one of my college writing classes my professor talked about what was important in your story. I have no idea who they were quoting, and I can’t find the quote for the life of me, but it went something like this.

“If a person is hammering a nail into the wall at the beginning of a story, they should be hanging dead by it at the end.”

Wow. That would allow me to eliminate so many unnecessary details! That kind of writing would take such intentionality!

In Eragon a lot of the description of places could be greatly shortened if he stopped and thought about how things would connect in the long run. Now I know Paladini was young when the books were published and I applaud him for being accomplished at a young age. It’s his publishers that I would like to have a little chat with……

But there is an art to writing. It involves the imagination. If you give every single detail or descriptor of a place, you eliminate much of the need for imagination. I feel like Hemingway said it well when he stated, “If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written. “- Ernest Hemingway

So let’s take some time to hone our art that we call Writing. Let’s focus on intentionality in our descriptors, not just slapping them on a page.

Keep Sparkling,

B