Perhaps you, like me, have seen this come across your social media feed:

Sounds so cool, doesn’t it? Well, the United States is one of those 50 countries, and a depot of the Human Library has been underway for some time here in the SF Bay Area. A friend and colleague in the UK gave me a heads-up that a friend of hers was moving to my area and that we should meet. She rightly predicted that we would really like each other. (All three of us are UUs.) What I didn’t know until we got together for a get-acquainted lunch was that she–the arrival, my new friend–was the new manager of the Human Library depot. I was very excited, and immediately asked how we could bring a Human Library event to UUCPA.

I expect that we’ll do that fairly soon, especially since our minister of religious education is as jazzed about it as I am. In the meantime, I am going to be a Book in the Human Library, this weekend, in San Rafael! It is on Saturday, December 2, 1-5 pm at Marin Ventures. Readers, for whom the Library is completely free, can have a 30-minute conversation with me about two aspects of my identity: being an atheist, and being a pansexual. I should say “or” rather than “and,” since trying to talk about both in the same 30-minute span would be a bit taxing. 😉

I am really looking forward to it, and I hope I have some good conversations. This is one of those activities that I didn’t particularly have on my list of sabbatical plans, but that fits beautifully with them. I have the spaciousness to devote an entire Saturday to something that doesn’t involve my family (something I avoid as much as possible when I’m working and Saturdays are our only family day). I’m having encounters that I imagine will teach me as much as they teach the Readers. And I’m learning firsthand about a ministry (my word, not the Human Library’s) that we at UUCPA can help offer to our community.

For the dates and locations of other Human Library events, follow the organization here.

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A new Ask Isabel is up! The letter writer is finding it hard to be thankful this year. Click on over to read what I suggested.