So I’m driving down San Pablo in El Cerrito yesterday with just twenty minutes to spare before the Big Game, and there’s a sign on the sidewalk that says "FREE BOOKS."
For me, this is like being submerged and seeing a sign that says "Free Air."
I make a u-turn, park, and walk into this storefront that is apparently a free book exchange. This is literary Shagri-La, but I’ve got to case the place before tip-off.
And damned if there aren’t some cool old books in there. I start to gather a little stack. As it grows I wonder if I’m being greedy, so I take a closer look at the flyers posted on the wall: "Limit is 100 per person, per day." Wow. So I’m cool with my 10. By the time I left it was 16. Watching the game with friends, I gave some away. The Portable Aquinas to Snider. Marcus Borg to William & Danielle, plus a funny early-80s book on NFL Running Backs that I got for Will as a gag.
Here’s quote from one of the books: The Revolution of Hope, by Erich Fromm:
"This book is written as a response to America’s situation in the year 1968. It is born out of the conviction that we are at the crossroads: one road leads to a completely mechanized society with man as a helpless cog in the machine–if not to destruction by thermonuclear war; the other to a renaissance of humanism and hope–to a society that puts technique in the service of man’s well-being."
–Erich Fromm, The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology (1968)
About Drew Dellinger
Drew Dellinger, Ph.D., is an internationally known speaker, poet, writer, and teacher whose keynotes and poetry performances—which address ecology, justice, cosmology, and connectedness—have inspired minds and hearts around the world. He is also a consultant, filmmaker, and founder of Planetize the Movement.
Dellinger has presented at over 1400 events across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. He has spoken and performed at numerous conferences—including TEDWomen, Bioneers, the Green Festival, the Dream Reborn, and the Parliament of the World’s Religions—as well as colleges and universities, poetry venues, protests, and places of worship.
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