Tuesday, October 28, 2008

A Universal Truth

I had the most splendid conversation last night with a shoe salesman. The Birkenstock guy, or the Broadwy Shoe guy, as he is known, has been selling me shoes for years. But, every time I see him, I become immediately awash with guilt that I never shine my Blundstne boots. I want to drop everything and hide my feet.

I ran into him at Lydia's last night, as we were setting up for Stories in the Bar (library storytime in the pub, which turned out to be awesome fun).

I admitted my shoeshine guilt problem to Birkenstock Guy and equated it to how people react to me when they meet me and learn that I'm a librarian: "Oh, [sigh], you should see the big fines I have on my library card". It taps right into their library guilt. Birkenstock Guy nodded knowingly, and said, "I spend a lot of time helping people to feel okay about the state of their shoes."

And there, in the pub, we discovered a universal truth together: "Librarians and Shoe Salesmen Have a Lot of Power."