Library

Dear S:

Today I finally got the chance to visit our library. A very new building with spacious lawn outside and almost equally vast space inside. You can sense the newness everywhere. Some workers were busy installing arrays of book shelves, besides of which lining along the walls are numbers of cartons heavily loaded with books. On each carton is written large in red ink the specific location of shelf where the books will be seated in near future. Not many people were here, partly because the unsettled current state of the library cannot serve well its users who need some quiet corners to rest or read. But I still like the place for its not yet being fully populated.

Walking to and fro between different shelves with books, I felt comfortable and humble at once. Even with the not so voluminous a collection, the books there still bespeak the vast amount of human knowledge that overwhelms a single human mind. How can I not be awe-stricken by them? I leafed through lines of lines of books, with a list in my hand, checking each book’s relevance to my interests, reading a few pages to taste a bit what kind of world the book will unfold. Sometimes u cannot help thinking that one in fact does not need thousands of books to feel both humbled and excited. Only a few of them will do.

Of course there’s some labor involved. After I walked out of the library back to my office, I found my arms aching badly. Books’ burden caused that. Maybe the burden goes farther than that. In addition to the physical ache from carrying heavy books, the mental ache will soon ensue. Sitting on my chair staring at their temporary companionship, I know they demand that my mind start kicking at once.

For their stay here is short, and short too is mine in this world.