To the Editor of the Crozet Gazette and the Crozet Community:
I wish it were possible to personally thank each and every one of the many people who have gifted me their kindness over the course of my tenure as manager of the Crozet Library–it would take a lifetime!
My remembrances of this warm, creative, vital community will always be tucked in my heart’s treasure box of most cherished memories; the beautiful library and its kind patrons, and of course, the amazingly talented, dedicated, compassionate and fun staff of the Crozet Library, who have become not only friends, but family.
I am a reader, not a writer. It’s difficult for me to find the words to express all that’s in my heart. As often happens with books, however, the right one happened to come into my hands at the right moment, Alexander McCall Smith’s Espresso Tales, a book in the series 44 Scotland Street. In this story, a gentleman is called upon to deliver a toast to a close set of friends at a dinner party. I now submit in this letter the text of that very toast as a toast to The Crozet Gazette, the Crozet community and, once again, the wonderful staff of the Crozet Library. I have taken the liberty of substituting the name “Crozet” for “Scotland,” with all due respect to the author:
“Our tiny planet, viewed from afar, is a place of swirling clouds
And dimmish blue; [Crozet], though lodged large in all our hearts
Is invisible at that distance, not much perhaps,
But to us it is our all, our place, the opposite of nowhere;
Nowhere can be seen by looking up
And realizing, with shock, that we really are very small;
You would say, yes, we are, but never overcompensate,
Be content with small places, the local, the short story
Rather than the saga; take pleasure in private jokes,
In expressions that cannot be translated,
In references that can be understood by only two or three,
But which speak with such eloquence for small places
And the fellowship of those whom you know so well
And whose sayings and moods are as familiar
As the weather; these mean everything,
They mean the world, they mean the world.”
Thank you for being my home, my world, for 12 lovely years.
Wendy Saz
Charlottesville
