Afternoon drum circle and dance ring near the Bay

The summer breeze kept things bearable on this Tuesday of the 90th National Cherry Festival in Traverse City. Walking past the screened and fenced performance space for ticketed audience members, the sounds from the MC and drummers floated on the air, less than 50 yards from the lake shore where the west branch of the Grand Traverse Bay meets the land.

See also the man in ceremonial dress walking toward the venue soon after the lunch hour,

https://www.flickr.com/photos/anthroview/28101294276

From an historical point of view, this amplified, ticketed, fenced form of an old undertaking for young and elderly alike has some family resemblance to what may have been done 50 years ago, when WWII was still in living memory of lots of people; or 90 years ago when the Cherry Festival got started; or 250 years ago when Native Americans moved more freely around the lakes and rivers of this part of the world. Who knows, perhaps one summer long, long ago there were similar ceremonially dressed dancers and drummers not far from Grand Traverse Bay.

Ancestor Investigations Performed Here

This curious sign above the side-by-side computer stations along the wall nearest the bookshelves that have been dedicated to genealogical study and reference materials caught my eye. It would be interesting to measure the extent of interest in ancestry among people in various societies: immigrant countries like Australia, Canada, USA, South Africa, as well as most of Latin America would seem to have the most urgent motivation to learn about family lines before, during and since the moment of immigration. But perhaps even among non-immigrant countries there are demographic patterns in the study of one's ancestors; for example, it could be keenest among those with landed property or those poor in cash, but rich in ancestry, noble or ignoble.

click for full-size image: "Ancestor Investigations Performed Here" at library

There are several building materials available for making meaning of one's life, the aspirations projected for one's children, and the longings for continuity to one's ancestors. One's life meaning can come from achievements, worldly and economic on the one hand, or more intangible markers on the other hand. One's purpose can come from one's occupations and preoccupations, whether they are gainfully paid and require vocational training, or whether they are avocational in nature. One's significance and consequence can derive in peer respect given and received, or rooted instead separate to peer approval or disapproval, governed and estimated instead by other measurements attained. One's direction in life can come by benchmarking one's peers or one's (extended) family members to show one's position relative to theirs: adhering to the precedents or on the contrary purposefully not conforming to those patterns.

Looking at the many journals, newsletters, reference books of ships' passengers, marriages, deaths, census and church records, in principle all names since record keeping began (and earlier still when the reference book brings data from overseas sources before that) will appear in one or more of these publications. So one should be able to identify and trace all appearances of a given soul from first instance to final disposition. And by this same logic, those of us alive today, will be recorded in various forms so that future generations may discover our presence in publication form the same way.

While there is hardly a crowd of hobbyist or professional researcher filling the space of this specialized treasury of names and dates, still there are many who do have some degree of interest in one or more lines of their own families' trajectories that intersects with the living descendants contemporary to the genealogist herself or himself. These quiet shelves hold the answers to many peoples wonderings about who they are, who they could be, how their lives measure up to those before (and by implication, too, measuring up to those who will follow in turn).

books, beaches, imaginary worlds

¨Books can take you places¨ used to be a catch phrase at libraries, Public Service Announcements, summer reading programs, GED and alternative education promotional posters, and so on. It is still true today, but the phrase is not so much in circulation these days.

[click for full size image: display top of cabinets on 2nd floor of Traverse Area District Library to promote reading at the beach: 6 July 2016]

Whether the printed page appears in pocket-size, magazine size, serial or all in one edition hardback or softcover the cultural significance is the same: one or more authors, and likely one or more editors pored over the manuscript (seldom written by hand; so more true-to-say typescript) and then a chain of technical experts and logistical processes connect the finished work with the final distribution in print or electronically for reading on portable electronic device. There is the technology of inks, papers, the graphic design to interpret the title and story inside, the pricing and promotional efforts by marketing specialists. There may be price points for book launch, then the rates at brick-and-mortar retail sellers, a 2ndary market for used books online and at stores, and the tertiary market of yard sales, free boxes and donations.

So when faced with an impressive collection of books like this, it is worth remembering what is implicated far in the past when author(s) cherished an inkling of a story and finally months or decades of life experience later produce a draft to work its way to the printing and distribution stages. And the implication stretches equally far in the opposite direction, too; toward an indefinite future in the life cycle of a particular edition, or maybe extended with multiple reprintings, as well. But in the release of the camera's shutter, that long timeline from conception to final disposition of a book is frozen momentarily to display the impressive cumulative result of many hands and minds.

a little library

Corner of Spruce and Sixth St. in Traverse City, MI 49684; the vicinity of Munson Hospital

Drive-through fast food for thinking - late summer 2014

During the pre-Industrial times, paper was made by hand and printing would be also by hand, possibly on the prepared skin of sheep or veel (vellum?). As a result books were of value for their scarcity, craftsmanship and ornamentation. The force of the argument or the vigor or the prose were secondary to all but those who could read. When paperbacks broke on the shores of mass literacy around the time of WWII the physical worth of a book was now less important in many instances that was the flow of the story or skillful mastery of words. Now we see steady increases in non-print books for screen reading on portable device or computer workstation. Yet even in late summer 2014 there is a space for a small library for passers by and curious drivers by.

The top-most text reads: Kids Creek     LittleFreeLibrary

The bottom-most (blue panel) text reads: Kids Creek Neighborhood Little Free Library, Learn more at www.tadl.org (traverse area district library), where the following story appears.