Over the years at the library, I have had no end of amusement sprout from interactions had with the public. Just yesterday I was caught off guard by a gentleman who I had never seen before. He walked up to the circ desk and I was immediately struck by how much he looked like a senior citizen Crocodile Dundee. My mirth meter peaked when he opened his mouth and the melodious tones of an Australian accent fluttered around the room.
Crikey!
Retired Crocodile Dundee was even sporting a black hat that had to have traversed much of the world with its bearer. That hat knew things I swear.
But anyway, today's librarian anecdote wasn't to be about my amusement with characters from far away lands, but rather a character who resides in the small apartment complex right next door to the library, Blind Lady.
Now, I don't think Blind Lady is completely and fully blind, but boy does she ever have the coolest service dog who guides her so very competently around our town.
Now from time to time, Blind Lady (we really don't know her name, but we do know her, as she likes to wander around the library and leaves us potted flowers for the library flower pot:) call us up and asks us things. We are used to it, for as librarians it's pretty much your job description to be asked things all the time.
That said, today's request put a smile of amusement on my mug that has yet to evaporate. My manager answered the phone, as I was packing courier, but as I stuffed things into bags and bins, I couldn't help but overhear my boss's side of the conversation.
"You want me to look up a word that is a synonym for outcast?" my manager inquired into our new phone, her brow furrowed in a get to the point for the love of Stephen King please Vskin trench.
By this point in the conversation both my coworker and I were completely drawn in to the reference question saga. Just by the tidbits on our side of the phone call, I could tell that the person had a specific word in mind they were looking for, but they just couldn't recall the elusive bit of phonetic flourish.
"Kat, can you help me here, what's a word for an outcast?" she pleaded to me with a hint of desperation in her tone.
"What, like a reject?" I replied, as I had very little context to work with.
"She says the word sounds like piranha." my boss replied.
"PARIAH!" I shouted triumphantly before dissolving into giggles. It was fun.
"Um, how do you spell that? She wants to know," my manager sighed with all the relief of a human who is about to finish a Herculean task (Just to get to the point of said conversation took about five very long minutes).
I spelled out pariah in my most amused tone, for to be quite honest, being there in front of a bunch of people, spelling a synonym like I was in a 4th grade spelling be or something was not at all how I thought today might go. I liked it.
And aside from the amusement value, that brings up a good point for me to consider. There's so many moments of joy to be found throughout the day. I'm not going to say I never get annoyed sometimes by some of the requests that are requested of me. I mean it when I say it, there are people out there who are just so lazy, but then again, I don't ever want a person who is genuinely looking for information being dissuaded from doing so just because what they are asking might seem foolish or infantile to others. Progress, education, wisdom, and knowledge are all things that are acquired at different rates and times throughout our lives due to a myriad of things, and even though there are times I might internally roll my eyes when someone asks me to stop what I am doing so I can look up something they themselves could easily search for, I have to remind myself to step outside my annoyance and examine what is and could be in the moment.
Am I being my best or doing my best when I bitch and complain, either to myself internally or to others? Nope. So as much fun as it is to whine, it's even more fun to be enraptured by the sheer joy of the moments that come along, no matter how silly.
And if that makes me a bit of a pariah, I'm cool with it.
