"Anything real begins with the fiction of what could be. Imagination is therefore the most potent force in the universe. And you can get better at it. It's the one skill in life that benefits from ignoring what everyone else knows."                                                                 - Kevin Kelly

Here in Greenfield our brand new library is opening on July 13, the culmination of more than a decade of community effort. The new building is right next to the Leavitt-Hovey House, the historic building that the Greenfield Public Library has called home since 1909. Last Saturday the staff held a book brigade to move the books from the old children's room to the new. In spite of rain children of all ages came out to help.

Photo Essay: Greenfield Public Library Move a Team Effort With Book Chain

"The project was inspired by Rutger Bregman’s book Humankind: A Hopeful History, which challenges the assumption of humans as inherently selfish and competitive. Bregman argues that this is wrong, that in truth we are hard-wired to take care of each other and solve problems, and this innate kindness and collaboration in the face of obstacles is what has led to our flourishing as a species. It's a radically different perspective from what we see in the news, which exposes the worst of us – corruption, destruction, and intolerance – on loop, 24/7." - Amy Rose

Article: Humankind. What We Learned from One Hundred Stories About People Stitching the World Back Together.

"We define the purpose of an economy as promoting our productive capacities, advancing tranquility and human flourishing, and enabling people to be self-determining in righteous ways. Governments have a responsibility to set the rules and steward public resources to achieve these goals.

"A document that provides a framework for creating this kind of economy is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations 75 years ago this coming December.

"The declaration was emphatic in its recognition of the five inseparable categories of rights that together uphold human dignity: political, civil, social, cultural, and economic rights. The declaration, coming out of the atrocities of the Second World War and the economic destabilization that preceded it, was meant to promote human flourishing and tranquility at a time when despair within and among nation-states was ubiquitous.

"Over time, economic rights are the one category that seem to have lost momentum. But the Marshall Plan and the policies of the New Deal and Great Society demonstrate what realizing the ambitions set out in the declaration would look like, especially as they relate to making investments in people and places." - Grieve Chelwa, Demond Drummer and Darrick Hamilton

The effect of that first encounter proved to be hugely influential, a “road-to-Damascus experience” as he told the Paris Review:

"It knocked you off your horse, taking LSD. I remember going to work that Monday, after taking LSD on Saturday, and it just seemed like a cardboard reality. It didn’t seem real to me anymore. Seemed completely fake, only a paper-moon kind of world. My coworkers, they were like, Crumb, what’s the matter with you, what happened to you? Because I was just staring at everything like I had never seen it before. And then it changed the whole direction of my artwork. […] I got flung back into this cruder forties style, that suddenly became very powerful to me. It was a kind of grotesque interpretation of this forties thing, Popeye kind of stuff. I started drawing like that again. It was bizarre to people who had known my work before. Even [Mad Magazine Editor Harvey] Kurtzman said, What the hell are you doing? You’re regressing!" - R. Crumb

Article: R. Crumb Describes How He Dropped LSD in the 60s & Instantly Discovered His Artistic Style

One-liners

"There are less than fifty working analog photo booths remaining in the world now. Since 2007, FotoAutomat has been working to preserve this photographic heritage by restoring and maintaining the last original analog photobooths in Paris, Nantes and Prague, mainly in spaces dedicated to art and culture."

Article: Vintage Analog Photo Booths