I don’t get it
I don’t get it. I just don’t understand the world I am living in. Elon Musk just purchased a 9.2% stake in Twitter. He purchased this stake with a 2.64 billion dollars, which as of last Friday was already worth 2.89 billion. What?! In 2021 insurance companies spent a combined $895 million on sport sponsorships. Huh?!
Remember last week when I mentioned the homeless issue in Portland? There are people living in tents, while others have 2.64 billion dollars to spend, actually, while one man has 2.64 billion plus to spend. As the chasm between poverty and wealth continues to grow deeper and wider I cannot imagine where an average Jane like myself will be in 25-50 years. I know that I will probably still be working in 15 years or maybe more. Why? Well because insurance is a must and it cost an arm and a leg (or at least what it takes to sponsor some talented athlete’s arms and legs), and oh yeah, they are also raising the social security retirement age and various benefits tables, a dark reminder that if I would have stayed in education I would be retiring in 2 years, oops, my bad.
I apparently need stronger medications to get through my days, maybe we all do. Or maybe we just have to turn our focus to the good and hope that it drowns out the screaming. So, let’s do that, let’s flip the direction of this bookworm and share some sunshine.
A few months ago I mentioned some kids that I had banned from the library, well, only until I had a chance to visit with their parents. Remember, I felt pretty yucky about it. That parent came in recently. We had a talk, got the kiddos a library card and a new day started. These kiddos have frequented the building a multitude of times since that day, checking out a pile of books (almost 30 in a month’s time) and one day I noticed they enjoyed a picnic dinner out by our big tree. All that yucky washed away. The coolest part, one of those kiddos participated in our latest reading challenge. The challenge is to read all 9 of the Little House books between March and June. I said participated, because, yep, they are already done! Pretty sure I am going to have to find an extra prize for the fastest finish of the challenge.
That is some good sunshine, correct? Warms the heart doesn’t it?
Lucky for all of us, I have another ray of sunshine to share. In February of 2021 we had a total of 14 attendees for story time, yep, that was for the whole month. February of 2022 that number went up to 59. Nice, but it gets better. Guess what March brought us, 141 attendees. What!? (but in a good way this time) Yesterday we had 38 kiddos (a record attendance, at least, since I have been here), so April is starting strong!
Yep, I still don’t get the world I am living in, but my community, well, I get them in the best way. We might not have a stake in Twitter and any sports sponsorships in our county are for our bulldogs and tigers at a rate nowhere close to $895 million, but we are rich in a much better way. Not sure where we fall in that chasm, but I couldn’t ask for better people to share that space with.
Upcoming Events: 4/13 Story Time at 10am, 4/14 Adult Craft with Joy Dock at 6:30pm, 4/16 Story Time at the Ranch House at 9am. Little House Reading Challenge continues, stop by the library for any of the first books of the series.