Let's Just Go Ahead and Admit It . . .

Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport, R.I.

This is not a picture of our library. You know that. And you know that I find very little to fault about Fort Worth. I have lived in other cities. And we Fort Worthians have it good.

--- But --

Our library leaves something to be desired. I don't mean the books, the people or the scope of the activities. I have no complaint there. But the building is, well, not as good as we should have.

This came to mind yesterday when I was reading a New York Times article on various libraries around the country. Many of which with spectacular buildings.

When I first moved to Fort Worth 25 years ago, I spent many hours exploring the library in what was essentially a basement downtown. When the construction of a real building on top of the basement started, I thought we would get a respectable facility. What we have is a decent facade on top of a library in a basement.

Maybe there just isn't enough interest in the whole library idea in this day of electronic medium. Libraries are a throwback to a past when paper was expensive as were the books they made. The average guy could not afford many books and libraries were a way for the common man to have access to the books that only the wealthy once had. Before online research, students, researchers and the just plain curious would camp out in a library to find whatever it is one needed. I did it often.

Fort Worth deserves an old stately downtown library with loaded bookshelves, big chairs, sturdy tables and librarians who glare at "loud-talkers" like nuns glaring at misbehaving children in church.

The downtown Post Office --- yea ---- that's the ticket.

Random Thoughts on the Bible, Art and Lent.

I use iGoogle as my home page. There are three columns on the webpage: the center column is news and email, the right is the list of stocks in which I am losing money, and the left column is the time and the "gadget," The Bible and Art.

I know many readers have an interest in the arts, whether it be music, film, or one of the many others, and a few in religion. And that some find religion specious at best, others downright repugnant. At the ripe old age of 55, with as many mistakes that I have made and flaws that I have, I am no man's judge or critic.

I do consider myself fortunate to believe, even imperfectly, in the earthly reality of certain religious persons and the revealed stories about them. And because of that, to the arts related to those persons. Like this Caravaggio, Ecce Homo or Behold the Man, a work that deserves some contemplation during Lent.

And fortunate to be a participant in 6,000 years of Jewish, Roman, Greek and now Christian history and culture. I can, as they say, "enter the conversation," a privilege I never forget. And to consider the truth or falsity of the same propositions that men for thousands of years have been considering.

Mozart's Requiem, Shakespeare's King Lear, Beethoven's Ninth, make me think that maybe Dostoevsky was right when he wrote, "Beauty Can Save the World." It is the magnet that attracts everyone. It is Goodness and Truth in the flesh, and it transforms even a casual observer. To bring the thought back to this weblog's theme, to observe a fine meal is one thing, to partake in it is another.

None of this truth or beauty exists in vacuo, without a culture; something else I never forget.

I add these photos of art because I like them, so there you have it -- that and a quarter will . . .

Main St Arts Festival

I have a few favorite events in Fort Worth. The Turkey Trot, the Cowtown Marathon, Christmas midnight mass at St. Mary's, and, right up there is the Main St. Arts Festival. It's a serious event for artists from all over the country and a great addition to our annual calendar of events.

At this point I don't think you could say that spring is in the air, but it is not far off. Main St. Festival arrives on April 17 - April 20 -- I mention these dates now because they are looking for volunteers.

Have a couple extra hours? Volunteer to help.

http://www.mainstreetartsfest.org/More-Ways-To-Explore/Volunteers.aspx