Thoughts
on The Library of Innerpeffray
The
Spirit of the Enlightenment believes that if given the light, the ordinary can
become extraordinary. I found this to be
true at The Library of Innerpeffray. Lara Haggerty, and her team of volunteers,
are ordinary people doing something extraordinary; they guard, protect and
share a rare collection of books that are hundreds of years old. They do so to share the knowledge of the past
with those who come to read a book. In
this way they respect the dying wish of a Scottish aristocrat from the 1600s:
they make available to the public a personal library of thousands of rare
books: books one can touch, hold and read.
Their act, in the name of the love of learning, boggles the mind of a 21st
century citizen; yet, it may be the one thing that can save us from the growing
darkness of the digital age.
I’ve
had the good fortune to spent three weeks with this small group of volunteers.
They are very well-read, articulate and dedicated to their work. Their conversations
sparkle with wit, humor, apt quotations and knowledge of the human
experience. They are accepting,
understanding, and nonjudgmental. They are humanists in a way we should all
strive to be, yet so often fall short. It’s been an honor to be with them as
they talk, work, take time for tea, and share stories about the world. This
group is preserving the light of knowledge in a world preoccupied with itself
and the destruction of others. Their
Library is an island of light in a digital sea; when they show us the past,
these people remind us, it takes the truth to set us free…
