was feeling pretty down. I’d read The People’s History of the United States – not the apple-pie Sousa march towards patriotism you’d expect. Then, watching a clip of Good Will Hunting (the friend who’d recommended the book had pointed it out), Robin Williams mentions Manufacturing Consent by Noam Chomski as another good book. Curious, I ordered it from the library.

It’s just as depressing as People’s History, a discussion of how propaganda in media occurs, how it always benefits the rich and entrenched, all that. As a liberal, sometimes the world can be a bleak and depressing place, and I was feeling it while I was reading the book the other day at lunch.

And then suddenly a piece of paper slipped from the book.

It was an old library receipt from when the book was last checked out, 2013. It had the person’s name (which I will destroy following reading this). And it also showed what else the person had checked out – namely Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age and The Conscience of a Liberal.

I just sat there and fingered the paper. It turns out that I wasn’t the only liberal out there seeking some sort of knowledge on the subject. The receipt gave me a comforting kinship, that yes, there are other people out there like me (not driving big trucks with pro-gun and anti-left stickers on their bumpers). There are people who actually take the time to read for intelligent pursuit, and not just Harry Potter and Fifty Shades.

So yes, now I perhaps have more to read and consider. And I thank this unknown reader for inadvertently sending me a small message, telling me I’m not alone.

>>>HERE’S AN IDEA – GET ONE OF MY BOOKS (THEY ARE CHEAP ENOUGH), WRITE SOMETHING POSITIVE IN THE FLAP, AND LEAVE IT FOR ANOTHER PERSON TO FIND. LET’S START A MOVEMENT. GET ONE HERE<<<