The moment I walked through the door at Barnes and Noble today my senses went on full alert. I will admit it. My name is Marla, and I am a book-aholic. The smell of the books, the sounds of the store, the soft lighting: all of it is like a drug to me, and today I took a good hit of it. For the first time in a week I walked back into my local Barnes and Noble, my “office.” With an hour and some to spare, I found my favorite spot.
While Jillian has been in Costa Rica the house has been extraordinarily quiet, so I’ve been working at home. By this afternoon, however, I was ready for a change of scenery and so I found myself back in my preferred coffee shop. I was away not even a full week, but I felt like I’d returned back home. Christian, the 20-something barista who is trained to pull my doppio espresso as soon as he sees me, was sporting a new haircut. He was pretty happy when I noticed this. Christian was also in my 4-H group when I taught years and years ago. I love that we now have a relationship that exists out in the community on an adult-to-adult level. Noel, Christian’s much older co-worker, was missing today. This meant I had to actually place an order at the cash register. Honestly…such inconveniences!
I sat down and began reading a book that I’m sure you’ll be hearing about (“The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner). The subtitle alone makes me smile: One Grump’s Search for the Happiest Places in the World. I began to read that the Swiss are one of the happiest people on the earth, and part of the reason is that they are not afraid to just stop and…BE. Right then I decided to stop and BE. I put the book down and looked around me.
Next to me was a guy I’ve seen there before. A regular. I call him “Guy who is older than he looks” in my mind because, well, he is. One day when i was working on my computer there, “Guy” helped me force quit a program on my Mac, something I’d never ever had to do before. In an ironic twist, the program I was running was a Microsoft product, of course. Anyway, “Guy” (who is probably in his 30’s) was flanked today by two old golfing-type guys, definitely pushing 70, each of them. All three were looking at a website that was apparently showcasing some photography one of the old guys had a hand in producing. The three of them discussed lighting values, how to get green out of fluorescent pictures, and a few other things I didn’t understand. At the end of their conversation the two old guys said, “Hey, thanks for letting us look at that website. Times sure have changed…pretty amazing that you could show us that.” “Guy” accepted their thanks and made some comment about the quality of the work these two had done back in the day. This was just a chance meeting for these characters, but there was something of the last generation blessing the next generation in it. There was respectful interaction, caring, on both sides. In short, there was actually community.
On my other side there was an executive who was dutifully hunting and pecking his way through some document. He never looked up, never made eye contact. Across the room was a young college student highlighting and taking notes while plugged into her iPod. I found it interesting that both these people came somewhere to be around people, but needed to be alone. The communal space met some need in their lives, and they were happy there, because they were still in their spots when I left.
There were other people who wandered in and out today: kids after school, a gramma in a walker pushed by a very happy black woman who howled in dismay when the books she’d left on a table were moved, a man with lots of keys drinking only a free cup of water. I call these people, in my head, the “extras.” You need extras in a coffee shop to keep the energy level going. So you have “extras” and you have “personalities,” like the golfing geezers and executive man and “Guy” and, well, me. All of us together, all of us at different ages in life drawn to one spot to share an afternoon.
I love the Third Spaces of life.
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Lovin it Marla. If we took that ‘just be’ mentality, I bet many of us could probably start independent blogs full of stories just from our people interactions at bookstores….two days last summer I tried making it my unofficial office…just sitting there I had so many God connections it was uncanny.
I sooooo relate to being addicted to books and bookstores. In fact, today I purposefully did not let myself enter the Books-a-Million that was next door to the sporting goods store I stopped at because if I enter I WILL purchase and I have so many books awaiting my attention at home that I had to refrain from the temptation altogether.
I love Barnes and Noble. It would be my 3rd space of choice apart from I’d spend too much money……
Very Funny! As you know… I love spending time there, too. It’s where I learned so much from your dad. I miss him. I miss the mixture of business, humor, family that we experienced in the 3rd space. It’s a great tradition to carry on (for a great many reasons).