Dec 17 2007
Whom Would You Borrow?
Once again, Europe gets the cool stuff before we do.
Can you imagine strolling to your local library to check out not a book, a CD, or a DVD, but a person? At least a few in Europe have tried it since the Roskilde Festival near Copenhagen did it in 2000. My page-a-day Uncle John’s Unstoppable Bathroom Reader Calendar tipped me off to a Holland public library that started a program in 2005.
The borrower arranges to come to the library’s cafe for a 45-minute meeting with a person he or she would like to question. Without the discomfort of traveling to an unknown neighborhood or approaching a person on the street, the curious can learn about other people’s lives directly from those living them. Formal or informal, professional or amateur, anybody can do it — and you don’t even need a library card.
My curiosity peaked piqued, I imagined the people I might choose. Growing up where I did*, there was little opportunity to interact with people from multiple cultural backgrounds. Pretty much everybody was white, and an overwhelming majority of those ascribing to any religion were Protestant Christians. Anybody realizing they were gay certainly didn’t let it be publicly known.
Several years into my adulthood, the communities I lived in and the workplaces I saw were peppered with only scant variations on the theme. I like to think that now that I’ve met more people living outside the boundaries of my upbringing regarding religion, sexuality, ethnicity, and culture, and now that I’m a parent, I might find more common ground on which to build a solid question/answer session.
Though borrowing a person might leave me still shaking my head, at least I would have answers directly from the source.
Just a few on my wish list:
- a Hell’s Angels biker
- a Catholic priest
- a Buddhist monk
- anybody who owns a 5,000 square-foot home less than 15 feet from those on either side
Whom would you borrow?
Related reading:
- the Telegraph’s story of a Holland library’s 2005 foray into lending humans
- a gay Muslim Turk “borrowed” by a writer for The Walrus (apparently Canada’s Magazine of the Year)
- Your Person’s Overdue - a fellow blogger’s more timely write-up on the subject
* My hometown also offered many things I miss terribly, and it remains one of my favorite places to visit.
First comment, yeah!!
(Hell, I haven’t even read the damn thing, I just wanted to beat Dave.)
I’ll read it in full and post again in the morning, ‘K?
*ROTFLMAO* Thanks Simon!!!
Hmm… me?
I’d like to meet a foreign diplomat
A police officer from many different countries (I’ve met some from Europe, and they’re fantastic people!)
A prostitute from Amsterdam (to TALK to)
A beer brewer from Germany
I’ve met many wonderful people while in Europe.. everyone there (especially Germany and Belgium for some reason) seem SO friendly!
I’d want to meet a homeless person to hear their story. Then I’d balance it with a Richard Branson type.
Wow, now that I’ve actually read that, it seems like a VERY intriguing idea. Who would I pick?
A highly orthodox Jew.
A female stripper.
And I like Josh’s notion of a homeless person. That would be a real eye-opener.
And lastly, a geeky, white, heterosexual husband and father of young children, just to see what we have in common.
So many options. I like the Buddhist monk and the German beer brewer. I’ll add: a porn star, a successful writer, a deathrow inmate.
Dave - I’ve never been out of the United States, so I am intrigued by your choices.
Funny story… I met a foreign diplomat once. I can’t remember his exact title now, but he was from Zimbabwe’s government. When I worked for a consulting firm in the Beltway, I went to donate our old computers, and at the drop point I met one of the people planning to take them back to his country — Zimbabwe.
Josh - I definitely would like to talk to a homeless person.
Curious, though. Out of the rich folks you could have picked, why Richard Branson?
Simon - Hmm… first Dave’s whore, now your stripper. I guess it would be interesting to talk to them about their work and how their daily lives fit into it.
Moksha - Porn star. The amalgamation of a whore and a stripper? They do “it” for money, and in front of an audience. Deathrow inmate’s a good one, too.
Cuz he’s the Thomas Crown of the real world. Cars, planes, boats, hot air ballons, record label, space ships. The guy just seems to know how to have fun with his money. Plus his voice would be more interesting to listen to than Bill Gates. I’m just sayin’, who doesn’t like to listen to a Bristish accent? The Queen’s English kind, not the street speak that I can’t quite interpret as English. — Gubnah
I tend to interview people off the bat. Not intrusive at all but I love to hear about people lives. So far the coolest person I have met is my girlfriends mom. The sweetest lady you will ever meet and she has been through a lot. I have spent quite a bit of time with her in a number of different surroundings so I have had numerous chances to hear about her life. She actually has MPD.
If I were to have to give choices to who I would interview I think I would pick… either one of my grandfathers because they were both gone before I turned one. Just a couple months apart from what I know. No one really talks about it.
I would also pick… The guy who lost his wife and seven kids in a farm fire a few years back in Ontario. I would want to know how he survived it because I don’t think I would be able to survive losing one child never mind my whole family.
and one more would be… Someone who was brought up in very unfortunate terms and thrived because of it. Like the guy from Pursuit of happyness. Not Will Smith but the guy he played in the movie.