When our two were little, Easter Sunday started with a treasure hunt : sometimes marshmallow eggs led them to a chocolate bunny, or when they were a bit older, we drew maps or wrote cryptic clues. And when when one of them was diagnosed with type1 diabetes, the Easter bunny cannily switched to sugar free treats for a while. The process of finding was, I think, more enjoyable to them than the actual eating. As is often the case in life.
I have studied the art of "finding things out". The course module wasn't exactly labelled that, but part of my training to be a librarian, back in the dark days before online searches, was to learn how to ask the right questions, and find appropriate content of information to answer the queries from all types of people asking all sorts of questions. Matching the right book to the right reader is a satisfying art and a skill worth having. ( I worked mainly as a reference librarian in the central branch of City Libraries). Some borrowers are more memorable than others, of course. One particularly obnoxious woman begged me to get permission for her to borrow a reference book, which normally was not allowed out of the library. She promised to bring it back the next day, and assured me, that as a minister's wife, she was particularly trustworthy. Obviously, after I got permission from the head librarian, she disappeared with the precious book, and it took me weeks of phoning her and asking, pleading, reminding her, before she returned it without an apology.
Librarians get twitchy about missing books, so I can only imagine the horror experienced by the staff at Cambridge University library in January 2001. The irreplaceable Charles Darwin notebooks were nowhere to be found. These books dated from 1837 and contained Darwin's drawings and ideas about evolution by natural selection. It was an enormous loss to our civilization records. Twenty years is a long time for something to be missing, and hope of ever getting the books back must have been dwindling. It's is hard to keep believing that the books even still exist, let alone will be returned.
So the pink gift bag on the floor outside the Head Librarian's office a couple of weeks ago must have been an unexpected mystery. The message attached wished the librarian a Happy Easter ( maybe a nod to the concept of resurrection of the dead, and redemption through faith!) The notebooks were returned in excellent condition, in the same blue box they had been stored in. A good news story indeed.
While on the topic of Cambridge libraries, one of the privileged moments in my life was a visit to the Wren Library, Trinity. It is a restricted access place, so I could savor the books and manuscripts without crowds and noise. Imagine gazing at an 8th century copy of St Paul's letters to the Galatians and Ephesians. The calligraphy and illustrations were breathtaking.
A few meters away were Isaac Newton's handwritten notes. A step to the right and Milne's original Winnie the Pooh manuscript and some unused illustrations by Shepard. Some Shakespeare. Some Milton. Ramanujan's so called "lost notebook" (The Man who knew Infinity is a wonderful movie about this remarkable man - well worth seeking out and watching.) Such a collection of creativity and brilliance. Just being in the presence of these great works enriched my life enormously.
So Easter can be a time of finding lost or new treasures. Some treasure hunts are looking for happiness, some are looking for steps to lead us on to new beginning. Sometimes we are just looking for chocolate.
