You haven’t written anything about the Bright Lights Book Project in some time because you have been feeling conflicted. There are extreme highs and lows involved in heading up this project. It is harder to reconcile these differences when taking the second person point of view.

Right now, the highs and lows are watching one another out of the corner of their respective eyes. They’d actually like to beat the crap out of one another, but they know that to do so, there would be repercussions. (By the way, a great name for a band, repercussions.)

But what’s going on bears explaining, and the second person is the best way to go about it since it lends itself to objectivity.

Nan and Bill sorting

The lows – it has been quite difficult, dealing with VCRS. There are some in the organization who are not supportive of the project. This is nonsensical since the project is becoming increasingly more high profile. You, in fact, are not allowed on-site, so others are going in and doing your favorite job, which is the initial sorting.

Any time, the powers that be can say “no more books for you.” This then looms as a distinct possibility. Then you will act upon a contingency plan, which is going to involve getting in touch with community members and telling them to make their concerns known to the VCRS board. But not yet, because otherwise, you will be adding fuel to the rhetorical fires.

The highs right now far outweigh the Bright Light Book Project lows. First of all, the distribution sites are doing very well. It’s the tourist season, so more than the usual number of books are being taken by passersby. And today, you met with Melinea, who has been doing the same thing you’ve been doing.

She has, in addition to her regular job, taken on distributing new books from an organization named First Book, and getting them to villages. She told you today that this project has a finishing date, so she would like to pass the baton on to you.

This is going to involve meeting with local Tribal Chief and working with him to determine where you should send books. And it may involve doing a road trip to the Homer area.

This is like a good dream come true. You are of the mind that the project is growing and you are growing with it.

Speaking of growth, you are now thinking about numbers of books and thinking that you are going to need a bigger area to house them and as well a shelter of some sort.

Something else to consider – the books in Palmer have been circulated many times. It may be time to get these books out of the villages so newer books can infiltrate Palmer. A tricky deal – you will of course run this idea by area bookstore owners.

Patience, I must be patient. All things in their time. Dog is my copilot. One baby step today, two tomorrow. Wait until the camel loses weight before attempting to put it through the eye of a pin.

Next: 158. 6/8/21: A Day in Town