all good books

A book is proof...

What's in a name....

   A some point early this year, when this whole trip really started becoming a reality, I started tossing name ideas around. I came up with some good ones. But, the one I really loved was The Book Gypsy. I felt like it embodied both my passion for books and literacy and also my style of playing fiddle. I named my blog. I opened a Facebook page. I even ordered stickers and made some business cards. Then, when trying to name my Facebook page, I got a message that The Book Gypsy did not follow Facebook's acceptable guidelines for page names. I did some minor sleuthing and found out that it was because of the word "gypsy" in my name. I had never heard that there was anything even remotely questionable about the word "gypsy." Apparently it was a pejorative. Who knew? I kind of huffed and puffed and then in a fit of frustration, I posted the following on Facebook:

So....I have a question...

Preamble: this summer I will be traveling all over playing music (mostly busking and farmers markets) and giving away free books (traveling Little Free Library). I will be living out of my car, camping, and staying with people along each route.

I wanted to come up with a name for myself and my blog that was catchy and also described what I was doing. I came up with The Book Gypsy. I have already bought the URL, been blogging under that name, printed stickers and business cards, etc. 

 

A Nomadic Romani Family
August Sander, 1931

 Last week I found out that  Facebook won't let me use the word "gypsy" in any page titles or descriptions. I did some research and I believe this is because the term "gypsy" is a pejorative in some cultures. I had never heard this before. 

So, my question is, do I completely scratch everything I've done so far and change my name? Have you ever known someone who was offended by the term gypsy? I don't any to offend anyone, but the thought of changing everything at this point is terrifying. I don't really care about the Facebook thing, I just want to change the name NOW if people think it'll be an issue down the road. 

PLEASE give me your thoughts!!!!

I was up in Santa Cruz and talked with my sisters and family about it. Everyone had widely differing views. However, my sister Annie and her husband were pretty encouraging about finding a new name. Ever the champions for those who experience racism in any form, they counciled me to do some research. I whined. Who has time for research!? Can't I just pretend I didn't know?! Oh, how my childishness embarrasses me later. 

I also got an AMAZING response on Facebook. Some pretty awesome names were suggested. Lucy Fire? Maybe in another life... Bibliothecary & Balladeer, Wander Woman, and Readabout. Oh, there were some choice ones in there. So many people also championed me to follow my heart and stick with what I had chosen originally. I was so appreciative of ALL the responses. So thankful. 

  

  After I had gotten my bellaching out, I sat down at the computer to do some research. I sat there for hours. I think it was like five. Some coffee might have been involved. I was so saddened and shocked by the history that unfolded before me. Here is how I responded on Facebook.

Appleby Horse Fair, Dave Thomas, 2003

  Oh I whined about this one. Yes I whined. I moaned and complained and even said, "Whatever! It's my decision!" a couple times. I bellyached about the money I'd spent on the website and the stickers, etc... I just basically complained a lot. My poor family. When I decided to rethink the name, I committed to coming at it from a neutral standpoint. And then I did some research. I did a lot of research. And, oh my. Oh. My. God. 

Horrible. Tragic. There aren't even words to describe the horrendous history of the Romani People. Though it is very different is so many ways, I kept coming back to the feeling that the Romani People are to Europe what the Native American Peoples are to America. They have been used, taken advantage of, treated as less than fellow human beings for so, so long. Too long.
We have this sort of Disneyesque, Rose-tinted way of looking at things here in America. I mean, I'm sure to a certain extent everywhere, but more so here, I believe. We romanticize things. We are a young enough country that we can afford to be romantic about our past, others past. And yet? And yet....
We cannot. I cannot. I cannot label myself with a term that has such a terribly sad past, even if it isn't something I grew up seeing. I didn't see first hand the purging of America's Native Peoples and yet I would NEVER call myself The Book Squaw. It is the same thing. I really is. We live in a rapidly merging global culture.
We have the opportunity every day to be kind, to heal rather than hurt. We can step closer to being a collective Human Race or we can step farther away. We make choices everyday one way or another.
Yes, I have the right to call myself the Book Gypsy. Yes, gypsy means a lot of things to a lot of people. Yes, I play "gypsy" music. There are so many reasons why it would be acceptable for me to label myself as The Book Gypsy.
But you know what? There are equally great names out there. And I want to choose to respect the Romani People. Even though this is such a little thing. Such a nothing thing even. But it is still something that I can do. Or not do, rather!
I've decided to call my blog and Facebook page A Novel Journey. Who can be a book nerd and tell me why? Facebook won't let me change the page name for another week so it will still say The Book Gypsy for a bit. My URL for the blog will stay the same for a few weeks as well.
What I've learned from all this? (Which I should have learned as a history major long ago) DO YOUR RESEARCH!We have this sort of Disneyesque, Rose-tinted way of looking at things here in America. I mean, I'm sure to a certain extent everywhere, but more so here, I believe. We romanticize things. We are a young enough country that we can afford to be romantic about our past, others past. And yet? And yet....We cannot. I cannot. I cannot label myself with a term that has such a terribly sad past, even if it isn't something I grew up seeing. I didn't see first hand the purging of America's Native Peoples and yet I would NEVER call myself The Book Squaw. It is the same thing. I really is. We live in a rapidly merging global culture.We have the opportunity every day to be kind, to heal rather than hurt. We can step closer to being a collective Human Race or we can step farther away. We make choices everyday one way or another.Yes, I have the right to call myself the Book Gypsy. Yes, gypsy means a lot of things to a lot of people. Yes, I play "gypsy" music. There are so many reasons why it would be acceptable for me to label myself as The Book Gypsy.

The Modern Gypsy, Unknown, 1986

    But you know what? There are equally great names out there. And I want to choose to respect the Romani People. Even though this is such a little thing. Such a nothing thing even. But it is still something that I can do. Or not do, rather!I've decided to call my blog and Facebook page A Novel Journey. Who can be a book nerd and tell me why? Facebook won't let me change the page name for another week so it will still say The Book Gypsy for a bit. My URL for the blog will stay the same for a few weeks as well.What I've learned from all this? (Which I should have learned as a history major long ago) DO YOUR RESEARCH!

   

Singing

Me singing while making coffee. 

Josephine: "Mom. You sound just like a robin laying an egg."

Passions

Girl Reading, Pavel Shardakov (1957)

   I have been passionate about many things in my life. My interests have come and gone. Some, like Irish dancing and goats, were bubbles of my life that lasted a couple years, consumed me, and then burned low to a dying ember.
   There is one passion in my life that has pretty consistently followed me through various life changes. Reading. I read to live and live to read. For me, it's all one and the same. Without books, reading, stories, characters, places a plots--those things that permeate a readers life--I would not be the person I am today. Reading has contributed to the best parts of me. It has held me up in times when I though I truly couldn't go on. It has stabilized me during fits of singular passion when all else in my seemed to narrow and become one burning interest. Reading has taught me to be the human I am today.
   Which brings me to why I am so passionate, TODAY, about reading. I am a school librarian. I look around me at these children who are on the cusp of drinking in this big, awesome, sometimes horrible but ultimately incredible world. They are bombarded with so much more than children of my generation and the generations before me were. I know, I know. It's so cliche. "Children now are crippled by media, fast food, Hollywood, spiritual apathy." You can pretty much insert whatever is the popular outcry at the moment. And it's true. Children today are going to have to wade through a lot more debris then their predecessors did to become well-rounded, engaged human beings.
   But, I think there is something that can ease the process. Something that can bridge the gap between the upbringings and growing ups of yesterday and today. Something that, in the end, allows us all to join this collective dialogue of humanity. And that, I believe, is reading. Reading books, yes. But, more than that, just reading. Reading the newspaper, articles, journals, poetry, cookbooks, maps, letters, and on and on. Reading exercises our brain like no other activity. It is for the brain what yoga, running, walking, swimming and hiking are for the body. If we feed our children's brains with unrestricted reading material, I promise you, they will FLY. They will flourish as human beings. They will know how to access the world in an age when global understanding is so, so terribly important.
 

Girl Reading in a Chair, Hans Versfelt

I believe so strongly in literacy. No just passable literacy. Excellence in literacy. We need to teach our children to read and to read well. They need to know how to read for information and life skills but they also need to learn the skill of reading to join in the human dialogue.
   Reading children fairy tales and picture books, rich classics and template series all give them a wonderful literate world to fill their souls. Having reading material easily accessible is key as children grow older. In  this day and age, if you live in America, books are free for the taking. Book are everywhere. Little Free Libraries have exploded across the country into the thousands and public libraries are alive and thriving. Most towns have a bookstore with either used material or new. You don't have to buy anything. Just sit and read.
   As you get older, learn the art of reading "on the fly." Stash a book in your car, in your purse, on your iPhone, by the stove, next to the toilet, at your desk. All the places where you might find even 30 seconds to read a paragraph.

Reading in a Hammock, Peter Bezrukov

   I know this is nothing you haven't heard before. I just feel that it needs to be said again and again. We NEED to teach literacy. We need to give ourselves permission to use literature as an escape into another life and world. Because, in the end, we aren't escaping, we are only opening the doors to new worlds and growing in the understanding of the one we currently inhabit.

Summer Reading

Generally I don't like to plan too far ahead with my reading because I find that one of the greatest joys of book selection is being able to follow what has interested you in the last book you read. Much of my reading is a chain of interest flowing from what I have read just previously. So many books mention other books or get me excited about a certain time in history.
   I've decided that this summer I will plot out my reading calendar and coincide it with the places I will be visiting. I'm going to keep a running list of my updates here.

1. The Great Gatsby/F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Richard Ford (something by him)
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas/ Hunter S. Thompson
4. The Heart is A Lonely Hunter/ Carson McCullers

Reading in the Garden by John Uban