It wouldn't be home...

...without a library!!!
No matter where we go, one of the first places I have to find, aside from the church (which is a whole other post!), is the local library.  The familiar warm hush as you enter, sidling past a stranger or two between rows of literature, searching for my favorite sections so that I can go straight to them every time - these experiences are the same wherever I go, and start to make the community mine from the first visit.
Nate knows this, and graciously accomodates his wife's passion for reading. ;)  He also reads, but his literature is usually fat stacks of black and white paper, covered in sections, headings, and diagrams, held together by overstrained staples or bound in three ring binders.
Our tiny town is too tiny for its own library, but thankfully, Naknek does have one! We drove there last week, marvelling at the rather barren-looking, snow-covered  land around us, slowing to a crawl for the destroyed bridges so as not to pop our tires (the continual freeze/thaw turns them into disasters of potholes upon potholes, with large chunks and sharp edges around and between) and squinting into the western sun.  The parking lot was a mess of dirty ice and snow, with rivulets of melting water making mud of what dirt dared show itself. Short, but green, fir trees and more piles of snow surrounded the unassuming little portable that proudly proclaimed itself the "Martin Monsen Regional Library."  It is tiny. But it is a full fledged library!
Sitting on a folding table inside were a few boxes of books with signs that said they were free to a good home.  The librarian told me she had to give some away to make room if she wanted to get anything new!  There were probably 10 rows, stuffed on both sides, plus a small room for the little ones section, and shelves lining the walls.  The books were of all ages, from probably the 1950's up to today's latest edition!  I browsed through the large Alaska section, and then searched out my favorite topics - what probably could be called "all about people and how they work." Health, psychology, social issues, biographies, and especially children's development, and different ideas for teaching and raising them, fascinate me endlessly. I was only allowed to get one, because it was my trial period as a first-time cardholder there, but the librarian took mercy on me and allowed me two.  Really I think it was Eden's charm that did the trick!
One of them is titled, "Strange Son," by Portia Iversen.  In it she recounts her experience as the mother of a son with autism, her fight to find any intervention that would help- the ultimate goal being a cure - and her discovery of a way to finally connect with her son's beautiful soul and mind, a mind she had so desperately believed in.  She connects with a woman from India who has taught her own autistic son to communicate by typing, first on a piece of cardboard with the alphabet written on it, as well as his own shaky but legible handwriting, and then on a laptop.  This is not facilitated communication, where another person holds the affected person's hand while they type, which can cause doubt as to who is really typing.  He did it by himself, showing his wit and intelligence trapped within a body he could not control. This woman eventually taught the author's son to likewise communicate, and went on to share her method with others.
Of course, this story of struggle and discovery, breakthrough and transformation, was deeply moving and touched me beyond what I was prepared for.  Her descriptions of interacting with her son, the communications between the author and the young Indian man with autism exploring his experience of life as an autistic person, are incredible and open up a whole new window onto that condition, as well as opportunity to ponder the experience of others who seem so cut off from "normal" life.  They are in there.  They are children of God, capable of so much, intrinsically valuable, and probably much more aware than science gives them credit for.  I highly recommend this book!