Research

Research comforts me. I'm not sure why.

When I was in college, I would spend many happy hours in the library with microfiche machines and photocopiers, often collecting so much information for research papers that I couldn't use half of it. I shudder to think what might have happened to me had Al Gore invented the Internet before I started college research papers. Would I ever have seen the light of day?

I think part of it is the axiom "Knowledge is Power." With information seeping into my brain, I feel less helpless. My library has an online feature where you can see all the books that you've checked out since the dawn of time. It is like an archaeological dig to look through it. There's Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, checked out in 1995, 1998, and 2003-- when each child was one year old. There are the books on learning to use computers and teaching emotionally disturbed children as I started one job, and ones with names like Teaching Math to People with Down Syndrome as I started another. Somehow, I feel better as I search the online catalog and write down titles like Postitive Discipline for Preschoolers and How to Behave So Your Preschooler Will Too. I am comforted just by planning to check the books out. The catch is finding time to read and implement all this newfound knowledge.