Solomon

If I were sane, I would probably wish to tell you my story in a certain order. I suppose those who go around thinking they are sane would say to do otherwise is insane. I personally prefer the term "unsane." It is not so bad being unsane. Just like the classroom in the movie, "Pay It Forward," where the student answers no one expects anything from us because we are only eleven years old. (Ah yes, I sell all sorts of media besides books.) Being unsane is just as easy as being eleven again. You might even enjoy it. Being unsane works for all the best outcomes. I am just allowing my story to unfold in any way it comes out of my mind, whatever that state may be. In any case, I want to tell you about Sol right after I tell you about the chickens, which is directly after seeding my lawn.

I re-seeded my lawn the other week for the late fall spruce up. Grass likes the cook weather and starts well in the fall. When those other less desirable plants go dormant and turn brown, the grass takes over. Now, my neighbor has chickens. For some unknown reason Frank's chickens found their way out, ignored the open range of fields in their back yard, braved their front yard path past the rotweiller, and crossed the street. That brings them right to my lawn and eating grass seeds. How do they know? They just know because they are chickens. It is like being eleven. You are just being what you are. Just being a chicken must quite naturally bring you across an amazing number of obstacles to where the grass seed is. I hear they ate the cat food on their way home too. This story brings me to Sol.

Sol is one of the big book dealers that comes to all the sales and is from Long Island and does business in "The City." He is a tall, lanky man who buys a lot of books. You will recognize him by the fifty cases of books he has stacked around him or his big book truck . As I told one newcomer to the book dredging scene, "Sol buys more books than all of us together." He is a retired military killer and will tell you so. He must have crossed a lot of dangerous paths to find his way in life to being a book seller from Long Island. Now he also has book stores all over the world. Some of them have closed but he apparently has enough book stores to buy many cases of books at every sale. He travels far and wide getting up at three in the morning making the long trek with his two dogs that seem to enjoy the long rides. They must be his loving company.

I was telling my other book dealing acquaintances about a library sale run buy someone who might be a mad librarian. We were early and waiting for the sale to begin passing time with our tales. This lady was not angry, although maybe she was angry too. She is certainly not unsane either. In any case once Sol bought his books and packed his vehicle, she would not allow him re-enter the sale to buy more books. Since all of us are subject to her at the sale, we found this to be completely hysterical! We had never heard of such a rule. "You can only go out the door once?" One woman chimed in, "She just hates him." I dropped Bill an email to tell him about that "librarian's sale." "To quote Sol," I wrote, "She is a real pisser." Perhaps Bill forgot who Sol was but he sent me back a lot of very funny modified quotes from "Mose" (Moses) and some other well known people.

As one hardened book seller, Chuck, puts it, "If I were having a book sale at my place, Sol is the only one I would need to invite." We are at the sales reading and taking books, making our piles, covering them with blankets. Some of us even have guards along where people can get quite aggressive about "stealing" our more special finds. All the best and most obvious books fly off the tables during the first few minutes in the beginning, which really makes the book civilians groan. After that the more difficult mining operation happens. We read the titles and peek inside to see the editions. We may read a table in the sections we specialize in a few times to make sure there is nothing we missed. Jim recounts, "I am at the history section reading the titles for the fourth time, making sure that nothing is left, and then Sol comes and just starts 'flipping books' like crazy throwing them into his bag."

We all wonder how Sol sells the books like he does. Some books sell for a penny on Amazon and other online services. Even a dollar does not help pay the original cost of the book. I have even watched him buy paperback reprints of books from that "Petals In the Wind" series. There are about 100 of those listed online last I checked just for fun. Many of us ponder why anyone would sell a book for a penny and recite that old joke, "They must make it up in volume." But Sol is not selling books for a penny! We ponder how the overseas operation must be running and his book sales. He has a lot of people working for him and even assistants at the bigger sales to stack his many cases of books. He must have a lot more channels to send them though. I am guessing that Sol finds books like chickens find newly seeded lawns. It certainly looks that way.

Lots of older people watch us dealers "flipping" the books into our bags and make noise about not liking it one bit. I have learned by this point in my career... any career... not to wait for a job where everyone likes you. Is there such a position? I hear little old ladies complaining about "the book dealers." "They take everything!" they exclaim in disgust. I bump an older man and knock out some of his coffee from his cut. I say I am sorry but he cannot hear me. He glares at me. I am a boorish book dealer. These people buy their two books and go home shaking their heads all the more. If we were not there grabbing up all the goodies, they could have probably swung for three. I enjoy watching and listening to them just like characters in the play. They never think about that they are speaking against the way I make my living and how I am even contributing to their social security. They do not see past that one book they wanted to find today but did not. They must think I make a lot of money... if they did think about it and despise me for my work anyway. Their social security might even be more than my salary. Perhaps I envy them in their retirement collecting their checks and hoping things are ticking along properly. Despite being unsane, I cannot seem to qualify for a nice mental disability though.

Seeing the old folks buying three books and not getting enough collateral to ban dealers from the sale brings my thoughts right to politics. If they bought three cases of books at every sale, things would be different. We vote with our dollars sometimes and for this situation I am in, that is good. It is my livelihood. I am voting today, but only with my opinion this time. This seems like more of a gamble, since I ponder if I am some far off victim of Reaganomics who are as common as fifty-cent books. Could I be? I like Kerry and his views, but are they real? Are his views today simply designed to be elected for now? If he wins has he definitely has found some middle way like in Zen? He is not just the middle but both sides of every issue. I don't like all of Bush's opinions, but I am quite sure I know what they are. That makes a difference to me and I think I can get enough Democrats in other positions to make him walk a tighter line. This makes me smile. Life is an illusion in some ways. I go into my little curtained booth and vote and walk away from the procedure not feeling as natural as being eleven. I don't even feel as confident as those multicolored chickens running all over my front lawn after having braved cars and dogs. I will wake up tomorrow with a President. Will the President be one I know or one I don't know? Will I find the equivalent of the magic cat food on the way home?