To Everything There is a Season

There is so much peace at waking early in the morning – before the birds, before the morning rush begins. The morning rush, these days, is so much quieter than a month ago. Yesterday Hillsborough County ordered a stay-at-home order with a 9:00 pm – 5:00 am curfew. Essential employees can go out – medical teams, grocery stores, and so on. For today, I am essential, as I prepare to go to school, once again, to distribute laptops to students who still might like them and would like to learn at home. I will leave here in about 30 minutes, and I’ll think more on the pandemic later. For now, I just want to take some moments and savor the quiet.

It is warm already; 74 when I woke at 3:30. It’s quiet outside, calm. Traffic on the distant interstate is a low rush of sound. The birds are not yet awake, although they will be soon. The sky to the east is still dark, no hint of morning. It’s always darkest before dawn – I am a librarian, and research is a true passion of mine. It’s a truism that continues, even now. It is a phrase attributed to and English Theologian, back in the mid 17th century. I take the actual meaning to be one of genuine hope; despite the dark of the night, the morning and sunlight is not far away, regardless the darkness of those last moments of true night. Are we living in the darkness before dawn? As an optimistic with realistic tendencies, I have to hope and believe this is true. There is so much strife in our world on all sides; so many conspiracies about our global situation. He said, she said, they did – did you hear? I just have to believe that these are the dark moments before the sun shines again and we settle in to our new normal, whatever that may be. Everything passes; we all know the song by Pete Seger, sung by the (Limelighters, first) Byrds in the 60s - Turn, Turn, Turn. “To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a season turn, turn, turn. and a time to every purpose under heaven”. It’s the basic theory, first explored in the Bible and Ecclesiastes; everything has a season, and this, too, shall pass.

Jack Kerouac is Dead to Me - Book Review

This is a book I would have loved as a teen. Raw, realistic fiction based on teenage angst. JL is on the cusp of adulthood with her looming 16th birthday. Her hippy parents have always raised her different from her friends, but she has always had her best friend Aubrey by her side. Her father cleans up his act and his new job sends him to far-off California, with a promise that he will be home in 6 months, and then another, and still another. JL's mother is not handling the separation well, and wanders around the house beautiful, but lost without her husband. JL is left fending for herself, with the partial support of her grandmother who refuses to see the seriousness of JL's mother's condition, but who also supports her granddaughter in her quest and love of butterflies.

JL has always been dependent on the love and support of her best-friend Aubrey. Aubrey's family is loving and supportive, yet JL finds herself and Aubrey not such great friends in high school years, especially because JL's family is falling apart and JL has too little adult supervision. JL falls in love with bad-boy Max, and she tries to cope with her growing love for him, the loss of her best friend, the loss of her father and her mother's worsening condition.

This is the story of hope, of growing up, facing changed friendships, falling in love, and experiencing glimpses of who we are meant to be along the way. It's beautifully written, full of both hope and despair, and also of the joys and sorrows the world can provide.