Subtle Coolness

I like libraries. A week and a half ago I explored the Life Science Library and subconsciously decided that the University’s libraries are the the University’s coolest places. Hold on tight while I elaborate on this thought.

Welcome to the Architecture and Planning Library. What exactly is being planned here I have yet to discover. Doubtless my capable iBook and I will uncover this mystery.

Here I am in the Reading Room, as before. I’m quickly concluding that every good library needs a room specifically designated for reading. Otherwise, there probably wouldn’t be much reading being done at all.

The ceiling must be at least thirty feet above the floor, and it’s peaked, so there are rafters (like in some ancient king’s hall). There are many long desks with sturdy-backed chairs, and lamps. All the lamps are on because it’s evening. A dozen chandeliers hang from the lofty ceiling as well. I’m sure during the day the light coming through all these windows would be gorgeous. I’ll have to come back another time.

I’m sitting on a leather couch, facing another leather couch, with comfortable-looking armchairs on either side. All this furniture in the immediate vicinity is surrounding a flowery rug. On the rug, in the center, is a piece of furniture that’s too short and too narrow to be a table, while at the same time too wide to be a bench. The only obvious conclusion is obviously happy: it’s a footrest! I know some other libraries that could use a good footrest.

Here’s a moderately sized model of a Mayan temple, encased in glass. This is an architecture library after all. I also might as well make a habit of telling you what page the big dictionary is turned to: malleolable - man. I’ll spare you the contents of the stacks today.

In proper story-telling manner, I’ve saved the best for last. As I sit on my comfortable couch with my feet propped up to just the right height on this welcome footrest, I need but merely turn my head a little to the left to gaze upon the library’s Christmas tree. She must be seven feet tall, and all surrounded with red, green and white pearls, like a 1920s jazz club. Full of multicolored lights and candy canes, I am reminded of home. We used to lay on our backs near the tree, and as the randomly flashing lights painted the ceiling in unpredictable patterns, we make-believed we were shooting through hyperspace on our way to who-knows-where.

I like libraries, but I love Christmas.

I have been given permission to be Taiwanese. It’s convenient to be from a foreign country. You can go wherever you want, and if the security gentlemen confront you, you can just pretend you can’t speak English. I’ll be trespassing on way more golf courses in the foreseeable future.

I’ve heard that there are over 50,000 students enrolled at my school, the University of Texas, and I’ve often wondered where everyone is. I’ve decided I want to find out.

Armed with a robust iBook that I checked out from the Flawn Academic Center, I’m going to try to visit some lesser-known places on the campus and describe what I find. Today I’m in the Life Science Library.

This library is everything a library should be, and probably has been for longer than I have been alive. I’m in the “Reading Room”, a long rectangular room with lots of windows providing natural light. All around the walls, where there aren’t windows, there are shelves full of books and periodicals. There are several big wooden tables with big, uncomfortable wooden chairs. There are even several standing-height desks with ominous-looking dictionaries on them.

I just walked over to check: We’ve got Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (Unabridged) open to “chiffer - china aster”. There’s a cute black-and-white drawing of a chimpanzee in one of the columns.

Another volume of the same edition is open to “hanker - hard”. The only picture on the entire page is a hansom—the kind that Sherlock Holmes used to ride around in.

Also on this desk are three large atlases. They are open to Australia, Japan and Canada. One of them was printed in 1986.

I was sitting near the “new periodicals” shelf a few minutes ago when suddenly, three people came out of nowhere and started to stack up all the magazines and take them away. Then another man rolled a book cart over and filled the empty shelves with new new periodicals. I suppose this happens every week. I should probably feel awed that I was here when it actually happened.

In the entry hall of the library, near the circulation and information desk, are several glass cases displaying various copies of Don Quixote. There are forty copies total, all in different languages or from different time periods. Apparently, we have quite the collection of rare copies of Don Quixote.

Next come the stacks. The ceiling is only about seven feet tall. The space between the shelves: three feet at the most. Browse through back issues of Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. Go up a level to find your favorite issue of Protein Engineering. Go down a level and crack open the American Journal of Physiology Vol. 1 Num. 1 (January 3, 1898). The very first article is entitled “Influence of Borax and Boric Acid upon Nutrition with Special Reference to Proteid Metabolism”. That sounds like a real page-turner.

Back in the Reading Room, I forgot to mention the quotes painted on the ceiling’s support beams. Here’s one of my favorites, in modern English:

O would some power the gift give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us
And foolish notion. [Robert Burns]

I went to see Macbeth tonight, for two reasons, in chronological order.

First, Chloë invited me. Who can resist?

Second, Natalie is Lady Macbeth. When I first decided to go, I had no idea. She played the evil woman very convincingly.

Everything was so awesome. I think Shakespeare is way better than any live music Austin may have to offer.

In Sacrament Meeting Kevin said, “Listen with your spiritual ears.” That made me want to somehow draw a gospel lesson out of something that happened to me last week. So here we go.

At work, Archana brought her computer to be fixed. It was having some serious trouble. She told me that she had four other people look at it, and all of them told her it was beyond repair. They suggested she should completely wipe it and start over.

I took a look and told Archana it could be fixed.

It wasn’t easy. She spent over five hours at the Help Desk, but all (or most, depending on your point of view) of her problems were repaired.

Here comes the lesson: When our lives get screwed up, there are plenty of people that will tell us to give up. We shouldn’t listen to them. What we should do is go where we know we can get help: Jesus Christ.

Getting our problems fixed (repenting) isn’t easy. It takes a long time and requires great sacrifice on our part. That’s the only way to get our lives back in order, though.

And when we’re all forgiven, we can give our Eldest Brother a big hug and get back to work.