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HAMMER TIME
Wednesday Apr. 20, 2016
Re-reading great works by great writers. Best bits, best quotes they are best remembered for. Remembered for their first novel, their prize winning pieces, their best sellers. They hammered out so much more.
We revere such small portions of their life’s work. Like praising the carpenter only for the front door or the mail box, while ignoring the entire house he built.
Fascination with Hemingway continues – not so much because his writing was ntellectual – it wasn’t lofty at all – but because it was so unusually conversational, candid and real. I stood last fall, at his graveside in Ketchum, seeing him not simply as tormented dead writer from a beautiful place. His words far outlast him. Not all his words. His best have lasted.
Which begs this question: what makes our best work, best words, best leave-behind values our lives?
Few of us build monuments or grandiose structures – but we can build bridges. Small ones between people. And ideas.
Life’s value isn’t a sound-byte, plaque on a wall or stone in the ground – it matters because it matters. What matters to me matters to me. What matters to you, or your neighbor, is equally individual.
The life insurance industry have a strange name they’ve adopted for one of their death-insurance policies – they call it WHOLE LIFE. What a misnomer.
Our whole life is a totality, not an excerpt. We’ve built it all, good and bad, the whole house.
Now, if I had a hammer …
A single phrase inspires you to hum a memorable tune.
You most likely thought Peter, Paul and Mary.
Or maybe, you thought of that tune's writer, Pete Seeger.
Mark Kolke
written / published from Calgary, AB
morning walk: 7C/45F, a few clouds, steady breeze – another great day ahead (yesterday was 27.5C, warmest April 19th since 1885). Gusta was a in a wander-meander-sniff mood this morning, a tussle of wits I didn’t win.
Reader feedback:
WASTE NONE
Thank you. Good timing, JF, Calgary, AB
DETERMINING FACTOR
Hi Mark — Thank you for thinking of me and calling. Sorry to have missed it. My talk hasn’t happened yet — May 5th is the day. I am so grateful for your speaking tips. Am juggling many balls these days, but will call when I can breathe and have a lovely conversation with you. For now, S#3 (aka SA), Edmonton, AB
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