Growing up, one of my favorite authors (among so very many) was Samuel Clemens, most famously known by his nom de plume, Mark Twain. As anyone who has read much of his prolific output can attest, his had a somewhat rapier wit. Many of my favorite quotes have come from his writings, including the one included in the picture above. I spent two years of my life when I was in middle school (in Georgia of all places) reading as much of his writing as I could get out of the school library and other sundry places. Among some of the other works I read were these;
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
The Innocents Abroad
Roughing It
The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
Sketches New and Old
Old Times on the Mississippi
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
A Tramp Abroad
The Prince and the Pauper
Life on the Mississippi
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
Pudd'n'head Wilson
How to Tell a Story and other Essays
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
The Diary of Adam and Eve
A Dog's Tale
The War Prayer
Is Shakespeare Dead?
Letters from the Earth
So it's not surprising that in 8th grade I was accused by one teacher of having a "smart mouth". I couldn't help it, I was influenced by all the sharp witicisms I was consuming from the pages of his work. Of course, this was Martinez, Georgia in the mid-70's and my English teacher was thrilled that she had a student that was in love with word play and the power of the written word. Not all of my teachers felt the same.
Although Mark Twain died in 1910, on two occasions the writer was incorrectly feared dead. Though only the second case would really be considered as a premature obituary, the first is often erroneously cited as the most famous case of the incorrect report of the passing of an individual:
- In 1897 a journalist was sent to inquire after Twain's health, thinking he was near to death; in fact it was his cousin who was very ill. Though (contrary to popular belief) no obituary was published, Twain recounted the event in the New York Journal of 2 June 1897, including his famous words "The report of my death was an exaggeration" (which is usually misquoted, e.g. as "The rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated", or "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated", or quite often "The rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated").
- On 4 May 1907, when people lost track of a yacht he was traveling on, the New York Times published an article saying he might have been lost at sea. In fact, the yacht had been held up by fog, and Twain had disembarked. Twain read the article, and cleared up the story by writing a humorous account in the New York Times the following day.
And its the first quote that I take as my inspiration for this blog entry.
I have to admit I have never been a very good pen pal or correspondent of any type. Back in the day (which as you can see below would have been somewhere along the mid spine)
I really did try to keep a few pen pals as that was before the joys of instantaneous internection connectivity but those brief forays into long range correspondance always faded after six months or so. Therefore, it should be understandable that my natural proclivity is not able to keep up long term correspondence. Its not that I don't know how to write. Since high school I've received compliments on how well I express myself in the written forum. Its just that given the choice, I would much rather read than write.
There have been two notable exceptions to this natural order. The first was during the long separations that I had from Amy when we were first together. As young performers we would take work wherever we could get it and more often than not it meant that we weren't in the same place at the same time while doing it. As a matter of fact, a month before we got married I was performing West Side Story in Berlin, Germany while Amy was performing Nunsense in Akron, OH USA! Nevertheless, I would dutifully write her letters and cards to keep alive our connection. It was part of the reality of that constant separation that caused me to leave "the business" as it became increasingly more clear to me that the only way we could have a family was if we were in the same place at the same time.
The other exception was this past summer when I made a concerted effort to try and write every day while on the road to let everyone know how the journey had progressed. However even that was not a complete success as I have twelve entries in various stages of draft completion. Although considering we were gone for 74 days, I guess that's not so bad for me. Added to that I have five other drafts stretching back to 2011 that I started and never finished for a total of 17 unfinished drafts - but I'm working on it. One idea I have is to collect all of those blog entries and create a book of our travels with each entry being a separate chapter. For those of you who have followed my blog posts you know they tend to be long and verbose (despite my best efforts, this has been a lifelong "curse" I always write TOO much) so with a little judicious editing and addition they can be chapters unto themselves.
So what has all of this got to do with Mark Twain's quote? I've been far to silent for far too long and I do know that I have followers who are interested in some of what I say as evidenced from the almost 30,000 views this blog has received. I'm sure some of you who read my blogs somewhat regularly over the summer have probably wondered what the hell happened to me and what is going on? To be sure, a lot has happened in my life both good and bad, most recently we had a scare of sorts with William but we just received word this past week that he is "clean" and healthy and that the likelihood of his tumor returning is pretty nil. To be honest this has consumed most of our life here in the month of February. The news has really brought us all back to life, pretty much the way this guy feels;
As you can imagine our lives are incredibly happy now because our little boy is healthy and clean.
Another thing that has been going on is my incredible lack of motivation to ride. I've chalked up my riding log and I've realized that I've only ridden five days since the first of the year. I've had many colleagues at school ask me if I'm still riding and I've been incredibly embarassed to admit that I haven't. Now I can justify a lot of the last eight weeks away by talking about how I'm just getting over the flu, how the roads were really bad because of Winter Storm Nemo, how I've been unable to ride on the weekends because I'm a member of the Northport Fire Department and I want to be able to go on calls, my nagging knee injury that made bending my leg near impossible for two weeks (which I treated myself, shhh don't tell my orthopedist), etc.
But in reality the answer is simply I SUCK! I have allowed myself to fall into the post "I HAVE ACHIEVED MY DREAM" doldrums. Last year I logged the most miles that I have ever ridden in my life on the road (7746.26) and I've just been feeling worn out and unmotivated to get back out there. I've been forgetting the reasons I started riding in the first place;
It's fun!
It's freedom!
I can make a difference!
So I'm happy to say I'm back and I'm getting back in the saddle and starting to pedal again to help those who need it. For starters, I'm going to be part of the Bicycle Rescue Squad for the Doug Wood 5K Cross Country Run on April 13! Its one of the reasons I wanted to join the Rescue Squad in the first place - to combine my passion for helping others with my passion for cycling. Its my hope that by next year I'll be a fully certified EMT and I can really be even more of a help to folks.
Secondly, I'm joining my wife, daughter and one of my sons in shaving our heads for the annual St. Baldrick's event. Amy and Sarah have formed a team called Bald and Beautiful and although they are beautiful, I'm just going to be bald. The only problem is as of yet I haven't raised any money towards my $500 goal. If any of you would like to help me get there, you can contribute to funding children's cancer research by clicking here. C'mon, whose going to be the first?
Oh, and I got back on the bike today and rode in to work. And that was fun.
So, I'm not dead yet, I'm coming back to life and I hope you'll all join me for the ride!
And to make sure I don't really die, at least I'm not dumb enough to do this on my commute;
Stay well and I'll see you on the road!
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