Today I did something that any reasonable person would consider benign and innocuous. I switched my "home library"! Allow me to explain: I am a frequent patron of the one of the local library systems, and as one might easily guess, I use their internet-based features quite frequently. The internet tools they provide allow me the ability to manage the items I have checked out, search for new items, and have them placed on hold under my name. Then I simply walk in to the "holds" area, which is conveniently located near the front, pull my items, and I'm checked out in minutes.
Part of the process requires you to select a "home library" It;s the branch where all your holds will be sent for pickup. For the last 2-3 years, I have been "homed" out of one particular branch that is located along a major freeway of my commute. Now that I work at a different place, and I recently decided not to use that freeway anymore to avoid the toll fees, I decided that another branch of the library would be slightly more convenient... so today I asked a librarian to change my "home library".
Benign and innocuous. One could hardly think of something more definitive of those terms. The phrase "no big deal" comes to mind.
So, why did a feel a small twinge of guilt as I made this change? Make no mistake, it was by no means a crippling sense of guilt, but an honest self-examination proved it to be extant nonetheless. Granted, we are creatures of habit, and I had been patronizing this one particular branch for several years.. sometimes stopping by multiple times per week on the way home. I recognized most of the library staff, and I like to think that some of them knew me as well-- especially after waltzing into the library in my full motorcycle gear a few times!
I've never lived in a real urban environment, but I imagine that the change I made today would be like changing hot dog vendors or newsstands in New York or D.C. In my own little way, I had built a brand loyalty with this particular branch and some of its librarians, and I felt a little guilty abandoning them on the altar of convenience (or to the extortion of $4.00 gasoline!)
In the grand scheme of things, this was certainly nothing to get one's knickers in a knot over... but I was fascinated that such a simple thing could cause such feelings. The human psyche is a wonderfully complicated and mysterious thing....
Part of the process requires you to select a "home library" It;s the branch where all your holds will be sent for pickup. For the last 2-3 years, I have been "homed" out of one particular branch that is located along a major freeway of my commute. Now that I work at a different place, and I recently decided not to use that freeway anymore to avoid the toll fees, I decided that another branch of the library would be slightly more convenient... so today I asked a librarian to change my "home library".
Benign and innocuous. One could hardly think of something more definitive of those terms. The phrase "no big deal" comes to mind.
So, why did a feel a small twinge of guilt as I made this change? Make no mistake, it was by no means a crippling sense of guilt, but an honest self-examination proved it to be extant nonetheless. Granted, we are creatures of habit, and I had been patronizing this one particular branch for several years.. sometimes stopping by multiple times per week on the way home. I recognized most of the library staff, and I like to think that some of them knew me as well-- especially after waltzing into the library in my full motorcycle gear a few times!
I've never lived in a real urban environment, but I imagine that the change I made today would be like changing hot dog vendors or newsstands in New York or D.C. In my own little way, I had built a brand loyalty with this particular branch and some of its librarians, and I felt a little guilty abandoning them on the altar of convenience (or to the extortion of $4.00 gasoline!)
In the grand scheme of things, this was certainly nothing to get one's knickers in a knot over... but I was fascinated that such a simple thing could cause such feelings. The human psyche is a wonderfully complicated and mysterious thing....
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