Joan of Arc had a vision, and this was to secure the country of France’s independence. Actually, this was God’s vision, and she was carrying it out. God spoke to her, or so she said. You’d think that if those who agreed that she should be burned at the stake believed in God, that they would have seen her as a conduit for his word and let her be.

Me, I have a vision and it’s to get a full-blown literacy program going. The site for this and for future book distribution will be the Eagle Hotel. Of course, not everyone shares this vision. Those who don’t have practical concerns. The problem is, they

Alys and Raudi one fall afternoon

can’t get past seeing it as a hotel, with all the hotel-type work that goes with it. If these individuals see the hotel as a literacy center, they’d realize that it will require a differing kind of maintenance.

The basement is now a teen/youth center. It just opened up. Carol renovated the entire basement area – it’s huge. Now she had a vision. And she got some, like the Mat-Su Health Foundation, to share this vision. She saw the space, which was formerly filled with all kinds of stuff, including filing cabinets, toilet bowls, doors, bedframes, and the like, instead filled with items befitting of a teen center.

Now I think that the Bright Lights Book Project volunteers (we are all volunteers) should think similarly. Hell, I can’t get them to contact individual donors, the first step in the direction of organizing a capitol campaign.

I’m not giving up though. Every day, like today, I work hard. Sometimes I get discouraged. Some days I get anxious. Some days I get tired. Some days I get weary. Some days I get snarky. But I rise above my moods most days and get going. Like today. I got going early this morning, and I moved the books that were in my car into the hotel, then began sorting them. I was done in time to attend the Palmer Lion’s Club meeting.

After, I went to U-Haul, and I sorted out the books heading to St. Lawrence Island. I packed up five boxes. I thought I would have another five boxes, but this was what was on hand. I have to have 30 boxes ready to send out soon because of grant funding requirements. So I have 25 boxes that I need to pack up. There’s this and there is that. That is nine suitcases of books, which I will be taking to Nome next week with Pam and Pam.

I thought today that it is not going to be humanly possible to do this. But I must because I have a vision and that vision is dependent upon my getting the work before me done asap; this so that others will say, “I would not have believed that what you have accomplished is humanly possible.”

So tomorrow I will resume packing the books. I have three days to get the two jobs done. Like Joan, I am not taking no for an answer.

Next: 78. 3/19/25: Tomorrow, the first day of Spring