Healthy, Wealthy and Wise
Franklin, Massachusetts has the country's oldest public library, a renowned Dance and Theater college known as Dean and a fantastic Whole Foods Market just up the street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in 1778 and contains 116 of his books, the first public collection in the nation. I'm on assignment again in the Commonwealth Communities of Massachusetts. This state is so beautiful and steeped in history it suits me just fine to be here all week. My 2 favorite Ben Franklin quotes are "At 20 years of age the will reigns, at 30 the wit, at 40 the judgment" and "Early to bed and early to rise makes a (wo)man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Oh dear... look at the time. Goodnight.
posted by Sonja Stark of PilotGirl™ @ 11:41 PM
2 Comments:
I often think of Ben Franklin - what an amazing man he was and how important his inventions, ideas, and thoughts were for the entire world.
Just a few days ago, I mentally thanked him for introducing public libraries to this country.
I had never heard of Franklin, Massachusette until I read this blog entry, will make a point of visiting it when I'm in New England again.
I found a short overview of his life and inventions here:
http://www.ushistory.org/Franklin/info/index.htm
I was just thinking of libraries in another context: as critically important foundation stones of democracy and, for many, the only place they can go without having to pay to exist in a space.
Any public library you go into these days will have a bank of computers connected to the Internet and the seats will all be full - not just occupied by high school students but also by the poor and, often, the homeless who have nowhere else to go during the day.
Those computers are how they keep in touch with family, friends, potential employers.
The library's printers are the only place they can print their resumes.
Those libraries are one of the few places the homeless have any chance to achieve dignity in their lives again.
Libraries are the only places to get papers for free to look through for job openings.
Libraries are where people study for their high school equivalency tests, for their SATs since they often have nowhere at home where televisions blare day and night making it impossible to study.
Dr. Franklin would approve of men and women having the initiative to use libraries to learn what they will need to better their lives and be proud of having helped provide a place for them to exercise that initiative.
Post a Comment
<< Home