How the Library Makes a Difference in My Life
In Wim Wender’s film, “Wings of Desire,” angels walk through a library in Berlin, overhearing the thoughts of all the people who are reading. We see the library full of these angels, listening to the thoughts of humankind.
I grew up loving books, and loving libraries. When I was the victim of a trauma as a child, in a family that did not know which way to turn, it was the library that had resources that helped me to know I was not to blame, and I was not alone. It was the library that provided a safe refuge, from difficult issues at home, and the cruelty of other adolescents. It was the library that stood as a monument to ideas.
These days, as a full-time social worker and a parent of two children, I rely on the library as a resource. Because of the library, my young son is able to read as many different books as we can carry home each week. Because of the Main Library’s drive-through window, I was able to keep reading even when it would have been overwhelming to park and carry my baby and all his luggage inside the building. We have enjoyed programs ranging from preschool story times to a Sand Mandala created by Buddhist monks.
I moved to Cincinnati as a young adult, and I have lived for many years in Walnut Hills. Although I spend time in many different library branches and the Main library downtown, the Walnut Hills branch has always been my favorite. One day, not long after the riots here, I stopped in the library to pick up a couple of children’s books, and I happened to ask the librarian about the beautiful stained glass window by the entrance. Her pride as she smiled and told me about the images was as powerful as the images themselves: the walnut tree; the house that you can still find down the road; the many symbols of the first integrated community in Cincinnati. In that stained glass is a special jewel-like spot, with a small opening to relieve the air pressure when the doors of the building open and close. Without it, the stained glass might break.
That little jewel is a perfect symbol for the library itself; an opening, a passageway, which allows us to breathe in knowledge and release the pressure in an age of ever-increasing demands. The library sustains me as a citizen of a diverse and sometimes challenging place. I walk in, I sit down, and it feels like my thoughts take on a different hue; like they really are being heard by those angels.
