Books and Grandchildren

 I sit in my book room

(in the garage, like the book room of Karl Popper)

I am flummoxed.

 

There are no strangers here. Acquaintances, friends,

close friends, dearest friends, and near lovers

 

But shelf space – unlike love – is limited and I face the

the challenge of a break up

 

It should be easy to, but I find it not to be so.

 

In life, I have lost contact with many acquaintances,

but with these books it is different because of the uncertain future.

 

Will a grand child sometime show interest in the history of ecology (Crowcroft,  Elton’s Ecologists), develop A Passion for DNA (Watson), strive to understand                                     the         biography of our planet (Lovelock, The Ages of Gaia)?

 

Will I one day be asked “Saba, do you have a book on scientific revolutions? (Dyson,             The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet”) or “Saba what are complex adaptive                                   systems?” (Strogatz, Sync)

 

Will they ask “Saba – when did Wellington raise people from the ranks?” Richard                            Sharpe is the answer

or

 

“Saba – what made a great commander of a sailing ship?” I can only think of Jack                            Aubrey”

 

What shall I do with all these books?

 

My friends – those frigates of Emily Dickinson — close, dear and near lovers – are     impossible to leave

 

But what to do with the others?

 

I sit in my book room

(in the garage, like the book room of Karl Popper)

I am flummoxed.

 

Oct 2017