We were thinking about starting a book drive one day; a way to get Our Book to the people who need it… Thought: “While we’re at it, why don’t we get all of the books from the 12 people that inspire us most, to every single one of the People of Planet Earth!”. Surely there’s inspiration in there for all! The obvious limitation: resources. Not enough money to purchase and distribute hundreds of books per person to billions of people.
Just do digital versions of the books! Plus no need to get every book to every person; the idea of libraries has existed for thousands of years, use it! Sharing inspiration with billions of people is huge, sharing it with one person is no small feat; we can start small, learn from our experiences, improve, and repeat.
Can we get the works of all 12 people on our list, to just librarians? That is a much smaller subset than billions of people. Librarians probably love books, have a level of influence over their communities, aren’t actively harming others; librarians are pretty cool! If we get all the works of Our 12 Angels to all librarians, and make them aware that such people have existed on our planet before, they may assist us in getting the word out: “Outer space is a pleasant place!”
Imagine a child looking at a librarian: A person in their life who makes their living in the world of books; A person who has lived many a life through the eyes of main characters in mind-bending sci-fi. What an opportunity to influence this child in a way that we’ll all be better off for. The librarian speaks to the child; informs him about outer space, other spheres, heroes with super-human courage… That child now has an outlet; an escape from planet earth, here and now, wherever.
We’ll give it a shot! But let’s narrow our scope even further and do a test run… First step:
- Get every librarian in Howard County, Maryland, one copy of Seeds of Infinity: Poetry for the Space Age, one copy of The Immeasurable Equation by Sun Ra, and one copy of Peter Thiel’s Zero to One.
These three books will give librarians a language for speaking about outer space, expose them to infinity, other large ideas that’ll serve them in interactions with children, and introduce startups as a means of affecting change in the real world.
Fun fact: All of Our 12 Angels, had an upbringing in which libraries and books played a foundational role.
Remember the first time a librarian showed us how to use a search engine? The year was about 2000; Google, one of countless celebrated internet startups… If we can help foster these sorts of interactions, strengthen the relationship between local librarians and children within their communities, we’ll be in good shape!
A plea from Sun Ra II: “No more adults, who are functionally illiterate; please. We need them working to get us off of this planet. No more warehousing people in prisons; please. Surely there is more that these people can offer us! I make my plea out of desperation, not arrogance. I don’t want power, I respect leaders, I don’t see my self as worthy of leading when I compare myself to my heroes. I just know from my heart, that there is more and better out there. It is a feeling that springs from a distant memory. ‘There are other worlds!'”
We can start small: generate awareness. Every librarian should know that this project exists, have a way of finding out about Our 12. They can join us in celebrating the contributions of people who could have become an “Average Joe” but chose not to. Then slowly start thinking about outer space, other worlds, better tomorrows.
