If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
It's baby season. Which means my life in my thirties is now a lovely inundation of ridiculous cuteness monopolizing my Facebook feed. Along with that comes one of my favorite requests at baby showers -- bring your favorite childhood storybook. Stacks of new literary indulgences for the baby-to-be pile up with nostalgic titles usually inducing one into a colorful arena of fondness: Frog and Toad, Where the Wild Things Are, The Giving Tree and a dozen others wedged between The Bernstein Bears series and the always notorious Dr. Seuss. I still remember signing my first library card and triumphantly selecting If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (complete with audio cassette - apparently just a pitied conundrum to today's kids) as one of my first acts of grownup independence and responsibility. This is why I am all the more delighted to have my childhood memories of library treasures revisited here in Otaki, an enormous contrast to the world of Kindle and Google at a finger's touch. I'd forgotten the absolute spine tingling anticipation of checking out a new book, awaiting its colorful pages of unread mystery for that evening's amusement. The library a solitary oasis for knowledge consumption with its reigning librarian a ruling source of information about the community and upcoming events. Perhaps it is the lack of Wifi or movies that makes this feeling all the more poignant, but after a day of tree juicing (mulching branches) and the oxalis seeds my only popcorn kernels of entertainment, curling up with a newly checked out book by a popping fire is quite the sugary bliss. A reminder of the true library experience and the absolute privilege it is to access information beyond the borders of where my feet can carry me. And how glorious a sweet treat it is! I guess it really is true -- if you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk -- or in my case, perhaps a puzzle for the next evening's anticipated entertainment. Offer some love to your nearest library and librarian today, they might just bestow upon you an experience your cell phone/computer/tablet won't provide.
