Realized this morning: I have been posting here for 2 years. Wow, time flies . . .
Thursday night some friends and I went to see the newest photographs by Thaddeus Holownia, a prof at Mt. A. Outside, the Saint John was rolling, and rivers were on everybody's mind. Fittingly, the exhibit featured pictures of the salmon rivers of eastern Canada.
They took me back to the quiet stillness I felt watching the brook out back of mom and dad's house. There is a lot to see in this world if we can hold still long enough to see it. The Saint John used to be a salmon river, until the dams went in. We pay a high price for "progress," I think.
Holownia also runs a printing press. I'm realizing more and more that Chapters is the supermarket of book stores - a lot of over-processed books but not much sustenance. Especially if you've seen the Gaspereau books and breathed in their beauty.
At the reading, Thaddeus talked about the beauty of books - how producing one is democratic, as it involves contributions from many people, how people can take it home and come back to it at many times during their lives, and how having a great book in a library means it is accessible to a range of people, not just those who can afford it.
This makes me think of Gutenburg's Bible - his press gave people the most powerful book in Europe in a time of kings and serfs. What an electrifying moment: imagine those readers pomndering at the kitchen table, free from the dictated words of the priest for the first time.
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