Days Are Longer

Saturday I went to town to view the selection at the public library used book sale. There wasn’t much of one. The perimeter of the room had the usual tables of young adult, romance and adult fiction books with an ample amount available. My interest is usually in the center tables, which this year were only four or five, compared to the usual 10 to 12. My goal was to buy no more than three for a free will donation. I couldn’t find a single one, so I came home.

It shouldn’t be surprising so few books were donated. The bottom line, according to Gallup, is fewer people are reading books in 2025. Reading appears to be in decline as a favorite way for Americans to spend their free time. Less reading, fewer books at the annual sale. Life as it is in Big Grove Township.

I participated in the People’s Union national retail boycott on Friday. The plan for no shopping changed when we received a new prescription at a doctor’s appointment. I bought gasoline, since the car was running on fumes, and made two stops for supplies related to the clinical visit. A lot of people were out on the street in vehicles. Costco had the fewest people inside on a Friday afternoon since I can remember. Not sure any impact will be felt or that demand for goods and services changed. The boycott was something small that people could support. These days, we need stuff like that.

I have a lot to say about the meeting between the presidents of the United States and Ukraine yesterday. Here’s what Ben Rhodes posted yesterday, which reduces it to an easily understandable paragraph: “People need to understand that we are in an entirely new paradigm. It is now Russia (and) the US against Ukraine and Europe. This is not a shift in US policy, it is a transformation of what kind of country the United States is in the world.”

There is widespread support for Ukraine in the United States. It just can’t be found in the oval office.

I read each morning near a window with an eastward view. As I sip my coffee, I notice light in the east when the sun begins to rise. All of a sudden it is dawning before 6:30 a.m. I feel compelled to get out in it and watch for a colorful sky along the state park trail. Longer days mean a hastening pace for the year, a late winter rush until summer solstice. When the days are longer, our lives feel shorter as we must rise and engage with the challenges of a new day, setting aside quotidian things like reading.