Spring New Shoulder Moon
“A scholar is just a library’s way of making another library.” -Daniel Dennett, philosopher, writer, and professor (b. 28 Mar 1942) found by friend Tom Crane
I love this quote. As I wrote back to Tom, it reminds me of an example B.F. Skinner used to talk about creativity within his straight-jacketed behavorist psychology. Think, Skinner suggested, of a chicken as an egg’s way of making more eggs.
Those of us who love libraries and those of us who have ones of our own take up their content like chicken scratching around in a farmyard. We poke, peck, pick up a few rocks to grind the ideas against the gizzard of our memory and our own mind, wait awhile, then, out pops words. Sometimes enough words come out to fill a book. And, voila, more library.
Well, gotta to get back to digging my little clawed feet, formerly of dinosaur size remember, into the shelves here. Till later.
