FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR BRETT BONFIELD
O
ne of the best ways to experience Princeton is on foot and I particularly enjoy taking a morning run through our community. Sometimes, as I leave my block, I make a right onto Wiggins Street, stay with it as I pass the library, where Wiggins becomes Paul Robeson Place, then stay with Robeson as it becomes Hodge Road, and then turn onto Library Place (because Library Place!) and let it lead me where it will. Other days I make a left onto Wiggins Street and stay with it as it becomes Hamilton Avenue, then make a right onto Snowden Lane and stay with it as Snowden becomes Riverside Drive. A couple of blocks later I make a right onto Prospect Avenue, stay with it through the intersections where Princeton Avenue becomes Broadmead Street and where Murray Place becomes FitzRandolph Road until, finally, I make a right onto Washington Road and follow it through Nassau, where Washington becomes Vandeventer Avenue. When the ground beneath our feet is everchanging, staying the course means taking on a new identity. This feels especially appropriate in Princeton, a community accustomed to having multiple
2 I CONNECTIONS
names for the same object: among the students in our public schools, there are more than 50 languages spoken at home; the tiles on Ik-Joon Kang’s “Happy World,” the stunning mural in the library’s lobby, features the word “library” in 55 languages. Even when we are talking about the same object, whether a library or stretch of road, the name we use affects our understanding of its essence, its state of being. Now that the 2Reimagine project is well under way, I find myself wondering what we will call our reimagined second floor when it is complete. Ultimately, we may simply call it “the second floor” and there are worse vices than precision. Or maybe instead, as with HamiltonWiggins-RobesonHodge, it will take on multiple names, befitting its multiple uses for our multifaceted community: “Where I take technology classes”; “Where I sit quietly and read”; “Where I email my grandchildren;” “Where I do my research”; “My (other) office”; “Where I keep up with the news”; “Where I find my favorite books”; “Where I apply for jobs”; “My (other) living room.” The second floor is staying where it is, and it is also in progress, moving along into its future and taking us with it. We look forward to your joining us in shaping that future.