Library therapy

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library.

The other day I was drawn into a sort of conversation with Brussels pianist Pierre-Arnaud Dablemont about the concert hall, responding to a post he wrote about if concert traditions still work in today's electronic society. I wrote about it on my, ahem, Music Critic Web log and I wrote I really valued the silence in the concert hall because there is noise almost everywhere else. It is the truth!

I found myself thinking about my experiences in the library, like when that bum tried to hit me up. 

Or remember the guy who kept following me around the music department? Ha, ha! I was just reading back on that and laughing.

Or the time I owed $140?

OK, enough memory lane. Today I have a new library story.

I was waiting for my friend Melinda to get through looking for I forget what, and so I was looking through New Biographies. There were all these biographies of Leonard Pennario's friends, I noticed. There was a big book on Loretta Young. While I was checking the book on Loretta Young to make sure Pennario was not in the index, I heard these voices behind me.

"So," this woman was saying, "what else would you like to talk about?"

Then came a man's voice. "Well, I was just at St. Luke's. You know St. Luke's Mission of Mercy? They have good food there. Free food. They had these cookies. The cookies were a little too sweet for me, but they were good, and ..."

I did have to turn then out of curiosity and sure enough, there were these two people, sitting across from each other at a library table. They were using the library as a counseling office!

Which, come on, you know? It was great that this gentleman enjoyed St. Luke's, but do we have to hear about this in the library? Couldn't they use a place like Brightside Counseling, which I saw when I was walking in Isle View Park the other day with my friend Michelle?

In all honesty though I have to admit, in my disgruntlement was a trace of envy.

"What else would you like to talk about?"

What a luxury, to be asked that question!