home

Home > Dispatches >Daily Dispatches 2022 > Daily Dispatch #142

May 24, 2022: The Best Laid Plans

I have had verified and am learning a lot about human nature, being the director of the Bright Lights Book Project. Verified that human beings are inconsistent and unreliable. Best to do what needs to be done on one’s own and not depend on others. At the same time, people will come through for you when you least expect it.

I used to make snap judgements about people, and at the same time was extremely judgmental, most judgements being made on that initial snap judgement.


Today, I experienced both ends of the human being personality spectrum, or the HBPS. This woman had arranged to drop off 17 bins of books at the Meeting House, this after she decided not to take them to the recycling center. Her insistence wore me down, and I finally told her to bring them on. Well, she got the books to the meeting house well after her scheduled arrival time. Had she been on time I would have begun the sorting process. But no, she got there late. And so waiting for me tomorrow are umpteen bins. I just figured out the upside of this. I did not have to assist her in lugging the damn bins into the building. I was spared and so I should be happy. And I suspect this was a onetime drop off. In time, I am thinking, we’ll have our own building and a drop box.

Volunteers were also supposed to show up and help clean and sort books. They did not appear. Their fearless leader, who is a good friend of mine showed up at the Meeting House and said that no, this group would not be coming today but that there will be another group coming tomorrow. Now, given the fact that no group has yet put in an appearance suspect that tomorrow may be another no-show day.

And if the humans of Palmer, Alaska (who are much like the humans of New York) come through as they are supposed to do, well then, perhaps my faith in human nature (which today took a sucker punch to the solar plexus) will be restored.

What has to happen, and in short order, is this: The powers that be at the Palmer Senior Center must agree to lease their land so that we can put a building on it. And the powers that be at the Mat-Su Borough must agree to part with a gulp 28 X 40-foot building gulp again. And the powers that be who hold the purse strings must agree to fund this. Once again, I am holding many pieces of a puzzle, but still lacking a board.

These are happy problems. I sometimes have to think about how far this project has come in such a short amount of time. I’m told by many people that I’m an amazing woman. This is nice to hear. But it is not me that’s making this happen. It’s to a large part the forces of history, meaning an overabundance of books and a desire on the part of readers to acquire them.

Next: 143. 5/25/22: Slow going

Horse Care Home About Us Dispatches Trips Alys's Articles