Visiting Bottega

Windsor Park Theater
March 29, 2009

Visiting Bottega
by Anthony J. Mussari

Clarks Summit is one of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s treasures. It is small town America at its very best. Visiting what is known as the gateway to the Endless Mountains is always an enjoyable experience. On this spring morning, the Bottega Art and Book Boutique was my destination of choice. For two hours, it would be the home to more than a dozen regional authors.

The sun was high in the sky when I made the left hand turn onto Depot Street. I parked the car, and I slowly made my way toward the attractive store front strategically located a stone’s throw from the intersection of the main drag, State Street.

I turned to my right, and I was face to face with the author of Call Me Kate: Meeting the Molly Maguires. Earlier in the week, I read an article about the author, Mary Garrity-Slaby, who writes under the pen name, Molly Roe. This made it easy to begin our conversation.

Mary is a very pleasant woman with a beautiful smile and a very sharp mind. She is a teacher by profession and a writer by choice. Her novel about 14-year old Kate McCafferty has taken her to events across the once thriving anthracite coalfields of Northeastern Pennsylvania. On this day, she was celebrating her accomplishments with other authors at Bottega.

In a world that too often appears to be a world of all crime, contention, confrontentation, violence, and lack of humanity all the time, the people like the people I met at Bottega prove that this is not the case. That is not the reality of our cities or our neighborhoods. That is not what is in people’s hearts.

The writers who gathered at Bottega are dedicated to bringing people together, solving problems, telling stories of hope, healing wounds, and making our country a better place for everyone. These are the men and women who are seeking a newer world.

Albert Camus, one of my heroes of the turbulent 60s, said it best, "The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself."

the words of Emily Dickinson and William Wordsworth came to mind:

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just begins
to live that day.

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.

Visiting Bottega was a day of life and breathings of the heart.