One of the nicest poems
by Longfellow:

THE BUILDERS

All are architects of Fate,
Working in these walls of Time;
Some with massive deeds and great,
Some with ornaments of rhyme.

Nothing useless is, or low;
Each thing in its place is best;
And what seems but idle show
Strengthens and supports the rest.

For the structure that we raise,
Time is with materials filled;
Our to-days and yesterdays
Are the blocks with which we build.

Truly shape and fashion these;
Leave no yawning gaps between;
Think not, because no man sees,
Such things will remain unseen.

In the elder days of Art,
Builders wrought with greatest care
Each minute and unseen part;
For the Gods see everywhere.

Let us do our work as well,
Both the unseen and the seen;
Make the house, where Gods may dwell,
Beautiful, entire, and clean.

Else our lives are incomplete,
Standing in these walls of Time,
Broken stairways, where the feet
Stumble as they seek to climb.

Build to-day, then, strong and sure,
With a firm and ample base;
And ascending and secure
Shall to-morrow find its place.

Thus alone can we attain
To those turrets, where the eye
Sees the world as one vast plain,
And one boundless reach of sky.

I like the part I bolded best, even if it does refer to Gods. Rush brought this to our attention on Sunday at dinner, quoting the part about "builders wrought with greatest care." We agree that this is basically how Ken lives his life. It's just his philosophy, and I've learned so much from him about that. I have truly changed the way I do things and the way I think because of spending so much time with him. I feel very fortunate to get to spend so much time with him, to have worked on projects with him, and to have received his guidance for the past 10 years. He's a great teacher--if he respects you. He's kind to you when he doesn't respect you, but he's a better teacher when he does. Luckily he's always wanted me to improve myself and the way I do things so he gives me the benefit of the doubt.

The temp was nice this morning and it was raining hard, very hard. Now the temps are plummeting and it's incredibly windy. Predictions are that there will be widespread power outages--that usually means me. Rats! I have a few errands to run, then will stop at Ken's. I'm working until 5 today.

Started reading our book group book--Continental drift, by Russell Banks. I really like it, he's a good writer. Have to hustle with it, the group meets next weekend. So much for the huge stack of Martha Stewart's magazines from 3 years ago that I unearthed during work cleanup that we had this morning. I spent 3 hours cleaning my cubicle and shelves. Ended up with one book truck full of trash. That's a lot of trash. Now it looks good, but I still have piles of things: videos to catalog, books to catalog, donations to deal with, cartons for the Court Help Centers workshop on the 28th, selection publications, stuff to catalog for member libraries, invoices to code for payment. And of course: stuff. There's a huge pile on the floor of personal stuff that will need to be taken home. In stages.

And on the to the cataloging portion of our day.