Hi there -
As you have no doubt noticed, I read a lot. That said, I take a backseat to very few similarly addicted readers. First among whom is most likely my big sister. Yet, she also manages to watch every broadcast sports event that touches - no matter how tangentially - the life of any Northwestern athlete who attended NU during the 35 or so years when she was academic advisor to that cadre. And yet she reads and reads and reads. I am firmly, if somewhat eerily convinced, that if she ever sleeps she may do so in a coffin 🦇 But I digress.
The point is that any of us who read to excess will often come across a phrase or sentence, that makes you sit back and say “Whoa! That is really extraordinary! I wish I had written that!” In that situation I will sometimes write the author and say something like: You know on page 217 where so and so remarks to that other character . . . . . " Well, whoa that is really extraordinary! I wish I had written that!” Sometimes they write back and we chat a bit. Sometimes they don’t. It is a neat experience.
It is even more special when the praiseworthy piece has been penned by someone precious to you. I have mentioned my friend Dan several times here on the Wall. We were born 7 days apart - I'm older 🙂 - on two sides of the duplex our families shared while our fathers were young professors at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. I'm not sure how he came to be the better writer. Probably that Ph.D in English at Carolina. Anyhow, we were raised more as siblings than as friends and remain somewhat psychically joined at the hip. Sadly, Dan’s first wife died of pancreatic cancer a number of years ago. An elegy he rote for her - I suspect those many years in the making - was recently published by a Brit publication called Fortnightly Review. The entire piece is one of those “Whoa! I wish I had written that!” pieces, except for the fact that I am glad both my spouses are alive.
Anyhow, Fortnightly Review, like many online pubs will shuffle pieces to “back pages” depending on how many hits they generate. I would strongly suggest you click on over to it - if not for a chance at reading some awesome writing, then to keep the memory of this awesome woman front and center for a little while longer.
Here is the link:
Cheers
That was beautiful and so worth reading. Thank you. I found my issue was due to the fact I use DuckDuck and not Google - DuckDuck is a tad more paranoid about security, but it's a much nicer search engine so I endure the fact it sometimes overreacts and tries to bar my way.
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