THE WAY OF THE BOOKSTORE

     It's happened three or four times now. I have made plans around a Borders Bookstore only to arrive and find the store empty, closed, and utterly abandoned. Gone are the cozy aisles of books, the chairs planted around the floor, the coffee shop and tables, and mostly, the feeling... the feeling of being surrounded by the written word, and photographs, and maps, and so much information and knowledge and wisdom and inspiration. I drive away feeling disappointed and a bit lost. I remember when Borders opened. What a concept! What a delightful place to spend an afternoon, or an hour. It was a place for answers and for comfort. It was mind candy at every turn. I am sad for the loss of Borders Bookstores.
     It says something about our culture and the current of our societal flow that they went bankrupt. Are real books doomed like telephone booths? Will they become exotic and outmoded, old-fashioned and unpopular; replaced entirely by Kindle? I hope not. For my part, I will seek them out. I love the feel of the paper, the turning of pages, the book cover, the back, the copyright and publishing information, and the whole thing, three dimensional.
     Maybe we are too dramatic. Maybe we are too quick to dispose of the old. We chuck it carelessly without considering the bigger picture ramifications. It's interesting to see phonographs and LP's return to being fashionable. They have cycled back around. Maybe there's room for the handmade and the old school to keep their place alongside the high-tech. I believe that we need them. The imperfect human in each of us enjoys the authentic and the rustic and the earthy, no matter how internet savvy we are. Slick computer screens and power buttons and rechargeable batteries can only bring us so much satisfaction. They bring us speed, and convenience, and access to everything we could find at Borders right at our fingertips; but without the character, and without the coffee, and without the cozy feeling of sitting in a chair, turning real paper pages, and being surrounded by aisles and aisles and aisles of books.

I appreciate the aspects of my life that have nothing to do with technology, and value them highly, and guard them. And I appreciate the technology in my life as well, but recognize its limitations in the human scope of things. I can enjoy both, and use both, and experience balance in my life.