Simple Living with Wanda Urbanska

Wanda's Diary Entries

Monday, April 7, 2008

A telephone call made over two years ago set the stage for a new friendship. Back in December 2005, I called a man named Leonard Kniffel who had recently published his memoir. At the time, I was on assignment for “Experience Life” magazine, for which I was writing an article on “second acts,” that is, about how many of us make changes in our mid-career paths. The telephone conversation blossomed into friendship, and, this Thursday, April 10, Kniffel is traveling from his home in Chicago to Winston-Salem, NC to speak at Salem College about “The Googlization of Libraries.” (His 7 p.m. speech at Shirley Recital Hall is free and open to the public. For more information, contact 336.917.5831.)

Back in 1996, just a week after his mother passed away, Leonard Kniffel suffered a heart attack. In the days and weeks that followed, with no immediate family to lean on, Kniffel, then 49, found himself feeling profoundly alone, and unsure about what should come next. Careerwise, he had accomplished great things. He was at the top of his field as editor-in-chief of “American Libraries” magazine. But he’d never paused to consider whether his career was satisfying him on a deeper level. Following his heart attack, he reflected on the big picture of his life and reconnected with a long-buried dream of learning more about his family history.

So he decided to embark on an exploration of his family roots and put that journey to paper. With no previous books to his name, Kniffel devised a three-year plan to take an eight-month sabbatical from work, move to his grandmother’s homeland in Poland and write what would become a brilliant and affecting memoir, “A Polish Son in the Motherland: An American’s Journey Home” (Texas A&M Press, 2005).

When Leonard and I talked on the phone the first time, we hit it off immediately. We had so much in common: our love of books; a fascination in geneology; an interest in all things Polish and in the city of Chicago (in no particular order). Despite busy schedules, we continued talking on the phone. Last year, about this time, we met in person when I spoke at Chicago’s 2007 Green Festival. So when Ginger Hendricks, director of Salem College’s Center for Women Writers, asked for suggestions of speakers to come to campus, naturally, Leonard Kniffel’s name was at the top of my list.

On Friday, after Leonard speaks to two classes and lunches with students, staff and librarians, he and I will have a leisurely visit. I’m going to show him Mount Airy, the new Sunflower House and we’ll eat dinner together. The slow life in my small town will doubtless be a welcome antidote to the breakneck pace of the Windy City. I am so looking forward to my friend’s visit. It all goes to underscore my belief that every encounter matters…. even every random phone call made for work. Take special care with every moment in your life. Who knows? You may be speaking for the first time to your future best friend.