Author Archives: Amanda Sweet

A world-weary sailor recently introduced me to Scuppers, The Sailor Dog. I wasn’t expecting him to speak with so much passion and conviction about this scruffy little dog, with his spyglass and weather worn yellow jacket. It was incredible. A few sentences into his life changing tale, I ordered the Little Golden Book. For two long days, I waited and wondered how one small book could inspire one small boy to grow into a brave and intrepid sailor man. The truth was on the very first page. This small dog is the stuff of legends, born during a raging gale at sea. The intrepid pup survived and somehow wound up on a farm, far from where he started.

But he was still a sailor at heart. Even if he couldn’t see it across fields and over mountains, the sea called to him. Eventually Scuppers grew big and strong enough to take his spyglass and a small pack of clothes onto a whimsically patchwork vessel that was just big enough to fit one sailor dog. But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Storms seem to chase our intrepid hero. Scuppers dropped anchor and woke up shipwrecked in a far-flung land.

He quickly found a treasure chest, half-buried in the sand. I’ll admit I expected him to find treasure, but it turned out to be tools. Everything he needed to build a house and stay safe and warm while he figured out what’s next. Stranded on an island without another dog in sight, the right tools are worth far more than gold or jewels. Gold can’t keep a dog warm. Diamonds might start a fire paired with a bit of flint, dry branches and foliage. Otherwise they’re just shiny.

It was at this point that I saw this little dog for who he is and how his paws could shape the character of millions. Scuppers is a problem-solver who is willing to do the work and get things done. Not everyone can say that. Scuppers is a farm dog who learned how to build and fix things with whatever he had available. When he solved the immediate problem of shelter and protection from the unknown dangers of the island, he ventured forth to explore and find what’s next. He’s a scrappy little dog.

His clothes were well-worn and almost tattered before even considering buying anything new. Scuppers found a village of dogs who looked drastically different from himself and casually walked among them. They probably even barked in another language and ate different kibble. Different people in a different land barely registered for Scuppers. He was more focused on finding new clothes, exploring new lands, and fixing his boat to set sail for the next great adventure. Our dear Scuppers had his priorities straight, focusing on the real problem at hand.

For a book written in the 1950s, Scuppers is about as modern of a hero as you will ever find. This book is by the same author of Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise, but Scuppers the Sailor Dog has greater passion and depth than any small rabbit saying goodnight to every object in his room before falling asleep. The Sailor Dog quietly realigned me with my values and priorities in life, paired with a much-needed dash of whimsy. In these changing times, Scuppers reminded me how much I can do with what I have right now. Everyone needs a Scuppers level of passion and grit to solve a world of problems.

Watching Scuppers sail off to his next great adventure, my thoughts floated back to my world-weary sailor. I’m glad he found Scuppers early in his journey. He has his priorities right. Gold and jewels have turned many men into dogs, but this one intrepid Sailor Dog has shaped countless boys into brave and curious men. Girls too. Scuppers doesn’t care who or what you call yourself as long as you’re willing to help out and do the work. Priorities people. Priorities.

With this lesson in mind, I bought my nephew a brass spyglass in a polished wooden box for Christmas. He’ll look across the lawn at his favorite squirrel and take it out on my brother’s boat on the lake, pretending to be the pirate from One Piece. I can only hope that Scuppers will help guide him to a new kind of treasure. I bought myself a spyglass to look up at the stars and imagine the path to a better future. That’s what we all need right now.

It’s the Friday before Labor Day weekend and I’ve had a number stuck in my head for quite some time: 287,240. That’s how many people are facing hunger in Nebraska. Lots of libraries already work closely with their local food bank, or grow food in a community food garden. This is good, rewarding labor.

Seeing a headline about a community garden or partnership with a local university to grow a love of the land gives me the warm fuzzies. But sometimes if feels like we’re barely making a dent in the number as whole. I wanted to know why this number is that high, and what it takes to solve food insecurity and erase that number.

That’s when I found Building Community Food Webs by Ken Meter. He’s been exploring food systems for 20+ years, and it shows. This book digs deep into the problem, looking at it through multiple lenses. Pairing stories with data, he puts the big picture together and offers a path towards a comprehensive solution.

He traveled the country and the world to understand how food is grown and moves through food production, distribution, waste, and reuse. Along the way, he found what worked in different states, syncing up the role of agriculture, food processing, government programs, safety and regulation, education and training, and a wide range of organizations. He explored what it takes for all these organizations to work together in a community food web to make sure everyone can put good, healthy food on the table. Right now, that’s not always happening. 287,240 means the web has gaps and spoilage.

Meter concludes that: “at the heart of every effective community food web is a group of people who trust each other. They share information openly, discuss differences respectfully and honestly, and learn together over time”. I read that and began to understand why that number is so high in Nebraska, and around the nation. More importantly, I grew hope that there is a solution if we dig deep. I’ll spare you the poetic seed, growth and root system phrasing.

You get the idea. Give it a read. I’d love to hear if your library is already embedded in a food web. It’s the Midwest, I know food webs aren’t new. They also go by many names. Share the seeds.

I went on a ghost tour in Seattle several years ago. We walked down a steep set of stairs and explored the damp underground. Every nook and cranny had a dark story of fire, greed, insanity, and murder most foul. The guide was good enough to make us all jump at shadows.

As our little group walked back into the light I considered how each person’s life could change in an instant. The gift shop was an oddly bright place to sell murder and chaos. The tent city across the street seemed to fit the theme better, so I found myself staring out the window at rows and rows of tents. In my mind, each tent was another dark story.

Over the years, I saw more massive tent cities across the nation. I wondered about the real stories behind all those tents, then I stumbled upon Brian Goldstone’s There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America in a free book talk webinar through The Aspen Institute. He spoke with passion and conviction, dispelling the myth that homeless people are all mentally unstable or unwilling to work. There’s more to the story.

Turns out, a good number of people are working full time but still can’t afford rent. Some lost their homes due to unexpected fire or natural disaster and weren’t able to find new housing in their budget. Goldstone humanizes the homeless crisis through real stories of people who landed in tents or cars after unexpected events. Each story represents a significant portion of the population.

In many cases, insanity doesn’t lead to homelessness, but homelessness can drive people insane. People are working full-time and striving towards work that pays a living wage, but are caught in a loop of trying to afford the schooling to build new skills while paying for rising childcare costs and trying to find an address to put on forms.

When cities make it illegal to live in your car and homeless shelters run out of beds, you get tents. The real story is that people are just trying to survive in a broken world. Life on the streets is hard, but people don’t want to become just another ghost on a tour of the city. All people should have the opportunity to survive and thrive.

Read this book if you ever walked past a homeless person and wondered about their story, but were too afraid to ask. You’ll never look at a tent the same way again.

Everyone has their thing they completely nerd out over. For me, that’s ecosystem building. Ecosystems are how people come together to solve problems and drive change in the world. I’ve dug into problem-solving ecosystems, innovation ecosystems, tech ecosystems, startup ecosystems, and how each of these ecosystems overlap and work together in different ways.

Today’s Friday Reads is all about how businesses, universities, colleges, nonprofits, government agencies, and libraries come together to cultivate and support entrepreneurs along a difficult journey. The fun fact is that libraries are not featured very heavily in the book, but we do play a role. Makerspaces, innovation spaces, entrepreneurial resource referrals, guest speakers, workshops, meeting spaces, and so many other ways.

This book helped me better understand how the ecosystem works overall. It could help you too. When libraries understand the process aspiring entrepreneurs take to launch a startup business, and can identify partner organizations within the entrepreneurial ecosystem, it’s easier to identify unmet needs where the library can help. This increases the value of the library to the business community, and adds new grant and funding opportunities.

I read this book many moons ago, but I still revisit it to refresh myself and spark new ideas. If you’re looking for new ways to engage with your community, especially in the world of workforce development, give Startup Communities a read. Let me know if you want to nerd out with me about ecosystems when you’re done. I have some stuff for you.

P.S. I try not to inflict my niche interests on the wider world too much, but this week, I let my nerd flag fly! Join me.