I'd Rather Be...

As a general rule, I’m not a big fan of bumper stickers. Many are divisive, and I don’t care to be insulted by the person ahead of me at a stoplight or push my views onto whoever is behind me. But every once in a while I see a bumper sticker that I can get behind (no pun intended) and I had one of those moments yesterday. I passed a car parked in a lot and its bumper sticker spoke to me right away. In fact, I got my camera out and as the owner got out of her car I enthused about the sticker and asked if I could take a photo. She gave me the go-ahead and we exchanged a few thoughts on her sticker. Here it is:

 

The owner told me she’d gotten it in Seattle at a library event.

It’s no secret that reading is one of my favorite past times. Libraries don’t always get as much credit as they deserve. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a library-themed bumper sticker. So this was a charming nod to the wonder of libraries and books.

Oh, I know. You can’t please everyone. There might be people out there who would find that bumper sticker offensive, somehow. They might believe the sticker is telling them what to do, as most bumper stickers do. Okay, I can’t convince everyone to see that sticker the way I do. But I saw the sticker not as preaching but as passing along a tip about the joy of reading. The American library system is free and it’s a treasure trove! It gives everybody equal access to books, music, ideas, words. Words are one of the things that connect all of us, one of our most basic links to others. In so many ways, libraries bring people together. It was a happy surprise to see that bumper sticker yesterday.  

I get it, Seattle library lady. I’d rather be reading, too!