27 November

Day Of Rest Album. One. Donkey Meditation

by Jon Katz
Simon and me: Healing

I dragged a lawn chair way up in the pasture and Simon quickly came over to me, and I gave him and Lulu and Fanny some carrots and he stayed behind and we sat in the pasture, head to head, for what seemed to be the longest time, but was perhaps only a half hour or so.  And Simon came and put his head against my shoulder and I looked into his eyes, and I heard a voice saying, “you helped heal me, and I will help heal you,” and it was inside my head, but that was what I felt, a sense of great calm, of healing, of a connection that transcended the ordinary, that felt so deep and beautiful. And it took my breath away, the two of us sitting up there like that, a cool breeze washing over us, and I thought how blessed am I, to be experiencing this powerful and ancient thing.

Simon, like many donkeys, seems to see into the souls of people, and being with him has changed me, altered me. He has been to the edge of life and returned, and so have I, and there we were, these two souls, fused as one, an intersection of the life we both share on this earth. There are many good people who would spend a day like this grabbing bargains in Wal-Mart, or shopping online,  and I mean them no disrespect. Most people can’t sit with a donkey in the afternoon.  Very few of the many tens of  millions of shoppers caused trouble, something the news sometimes forgets to point out. And people must find meaning in their own way. But I would not rather be anywhere but where I was this afternoon, it seemed to me I was getting the greatest gift and bargain of all, a change to brush against one small entry in the journal of life.

27 November

Hell Or High Water: Lisa Sullivan’s Triumph

by Jon Katz
Hell To High Water: Bartleby's Bookstore, Wilmington, Vt.

 

Mystery writer Archer Mayor signs his new book “Tag Man” while Lisa Sullivan beams. What a triumph.

 

We went to Wilmington, Vt. Saturday to cheer Lisa Sullivan on as she re-opened Bartleby’s Bookstore, destroyed several months ago by Hurricane Irene. Sullivan’s other book store, The Book Cellar, was destroyed in a fire in Brattleboro, Vt. last year. Lisa has literally been from hell to high water, and the opening of Bartleby’s was a  triumph, a radioactive jewel of a happening for independent bookstores.  There is much hang-wringing in publishing and the bookstore world these days, but you will not hear any of it coming from Wilmington Vt.

Lisa opened her store Wednesday morning – she refused to take any of the aid pouring into flood-ravaged Wilmington, saying it should go to other businesses –  and she was shocked to come to find more than a score of people in line waiting for her to open up. The crowds kept coming, as her exhausted but very happy staff testified.  I did a reading for Lisa a month ago at a Wilmington school and I was dazzled by her energy, courage, enthusiasm and determination. I knew she would reopen, but neither of us imagined she would sell 10 per cent of her stock on Wednesday, and another 20 per cent by Saturday (bestselling writer Mayor came by on Saturday to help out.)  There were lines all day, and her biggest problem, she said, was that she was out of books.

The town turned out to support Bartleby’s, but so did many people from all over Vermont and elsewhere. This is a wonderful story for Lisa, for independent bookstores, and for the many people who value and support them. Lisa Sullivan is heroic. She loves books, she is innovative and willing to change and never lost her positive (at least in public), dedicated sense that her bookstore needed to survive.  I have never heard her complain about her life or her troubles or whine about Amazon or e-books. She just got to work and rebounded, and with a vengeance. People love e-books and they love bookstores. There is room for both.

And that reminds me of another bookstore I love, Battenkill Books, owned by another wonderful bookseller, Connie Brooks, who has sold more than 700 copies of my new book “Going Home: Finding Peace When Pets Die,” and more than 100 copies of “Meet The Dogs Of Bedlam Farm.” She is giving away free videos and notecards with each book purchased. You can call her at 518 677-2515 or order the book online at [email protected]. She takes PayPal. I will be in the bookstore on Friday December 2, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. to take your calls and orders and to sign copies of my books. We are heading for 1,000 sold and Lisa Sullivan has inspired me yet again. We will make it. Connie has not lost a store to fire or flood but she has faced many challenges and responded to them graciously and creatively. Good people run bookstores, I think, I have never met one I didn’t like.

Corporate America has its rightful place in our lives, but so do individuals and independent businesses. We need bookstores in our lives and communities, as the people in Wilmington Vt. just demonstrated and the people buying books from Connie are showing also. Support them if you can.

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