Where I Stand

As I have made more clear than anyone, myself included, could have have wanted, I go to the library a good bit. That being the case, I think it's fair to say that I have a pretty good handle on proper etiquette. Most people there don't, regardless of how much time they spend there. Maybe I'm different because I have been going to the library since they were more strict, or maybe not. What's clear is that I manage to be quiet there, when most people aren't and when I am as loud as a peacock everywhere else. That's not the only thing that people could stand to learn from me though.

You see, I know how to stand in front of a shelf so that I'm not in the way. Most people can't do that or don't. With the books it's not an issue. It's not that fewer people read these days (because probably more do), but they have been outpaced by those who do other things. The point is that it's rare for multiple people to home in on a single section of books, but they will always do that with the DVDs, and some courtesy would help a lot if anyone learned it.

You don't have to press yourself against the shelf like a cop is checking you for weapons. In being so close, it is all the harder for anyone around you to look at the same items. If you turn to look, you may see them twisting to and fro hoping to see past you, and they will look to all the world like a dandelion. Don't do that to a person. All you have to do is stand back a bit and rely on your trusty eyeballs to see the print on the cases from further back than one foot. I bet that you can do it.

I do despair for humanity. It's a horrible feeling to consider that you might be the last person who cares about such niceties as the above, or about waiting for people to exit an elevator before you try to force your bulk into it. It's enough to make you want to test out Thoreau's conclusions from Walden- a book, incidentally, which does not tend to draw suck crowds as to provoke the above-described problem. Isn't that a shame?