January 21, 2004
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Let me preamble, been such a busy week that honestly I have not the time for even one blog, there are weeks like that in all of our lives, when you blink, and hey presto! it’s gone.
What have I been doing? Went away for part of the weekend, I have friends still, not many as you can expect with my bluntless and complete absence of tact or empathy, but some poor sods still find me creative and funny.
i am working hard, I can’t even be bothered to say what I now do, but it is one very long fall down. From a large house to a small flat, from a nine-seater car to a yearly bus ticket. But hey shmucks, am I unhappy? Well, yes, but I accept life as it is, raw, brutal, short and mortal. A lot of more lovely people than I have died whilst I live on, to fear death would only be an insult to their memory, as if to say, I am more worthy to live on.
I have been writing like mad too, you only read a fraction of my poems. A poet Don Paterson, who is winning thousands of pounds in prize money writes about a poem a year, I average a poem a day, that speaks for itself, the old hack writer still keeping to an imaginary deadline.
I have a dvd player too as well as a telly, as well as music everywhere, and in the midst of all that I have to find time to eat and sleep. I do not sleep much but I need a lot of dozing just to rest what is left of my brain, still, that brain has never been that much use to me.
“Why is daddy so busy?” I remember one of my children say, yet they saw a lot more of me as some kids their father, away from the office, I often had one of them in a car, except of course in roles of danger.
People speak to a reporter when they have a child with them, such reporters do not then look heartless beasts like one belonging to a nearby paper. A policeman direct his small son across the road for the boy to be killed by a villian in a van. As the policeman lay on the pavement sobbing over the body this fucking reporter asked the copper if he had a photo of the boy for his paper.
No wonder people hated us, but I was never like that, many an assignment ended in no real story, as I could not write anything cruel except about cruel people. But I had my enemies, boy I had them, and I never used my real name in newspaper print because of this.
Any UK person reading would know who Tony Benn MP is, he was also MP for Chesterfield, and was the only innocent person who tape-recorded what he said to the reporter, not for legal reasons but for his life-collection of his life. It was comical two men in the street both with mikes talking to each other, two mikes at the reporter’s mouth then two mikes at the MP’s mouth.
No wonder I prefered a notebook and pitman’s most of the time.
You have read enough, I would give nuggets of today’s job, but it is not interesting enough, so ttfn.
Terry.
Comments (16)
We had a favorite friend some years back, named Ed Alexander. He was a short little guy, muscular, walked with a limp from having polio as a kid. We met him doing gem and mineral shows that we also sold at. Now Ed didn’t have a lot of friends at the shows. He had a big smile and was expert in knowledge about what he sold (high quality opal) and he had a vast store of expletives that he used. These expletives made him less popular with a lot of the more prissy types but the first time I laid eyes on the man, I was in love. He was the sweetest man underneath all of his bad language and my honey and I grew to care a lot about him. That first meeting grew into a friendship that eventually led to us visiting him and his wife in his home in San Diego. He has since died and I miss him to this day.
You can’t say too much in your blogs that will upset me but temporarily if at all. There is something about you I am “in love with”. I can’t think of much else to say other than that.
LittleE
PS, I am always interested in what you write and how you write. I don’t always understand it but I read it trying.
LittleE
Trying, yup that me, my Uriah Heep prose, it was never like that, as befrit someone with autisticism, it was cool and readable, now I meander!
Hey! You have 2 sites! Thanks for letting me know. I’m glad you weren’t one of the ‘cruel’ reporters. That would be a job I would not be able to do. And thanks for the compliment about making an average day into literature. It’s not true – I write total drivel. But thanks anyway.
As stated by British philosopher, Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), “in the nature of man we find three principal causes of quarrel: first, competition; secondly, diffidence; thirdly glory. The first makes men invade for gain; the second for safety; and the third, for reputation. The first use violence to make themselves masters of other men’s persons, wives, children and cattle; the second, to defend them; the third, for trifles, as a word, a smile, a different opinion, and any other sign of undervalue, either direct in their persons or by reflection in their kindred, their friends, their nation, their profession, or their name.” He further believed that without society, (and by necessity government), we would all live in continual fear and danger of violent death, and that “the life of man [would be] solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”
I admire you, Sir LP. Quite so, and then some.
Don’t work too, too hard! We would miss you at the podium.
I think accepting life as it is, proves to be a task that’s harder than it sounds. Happiness is overrated, so maybe you’re unhappy, but you’ve found something here, and are still here, so you seem pretty well off to me.
I don’t have much tact either, but the friends that stick around are always worth having, so far as I’ve found- aren’t they?
Of course we haven’t fallen out Terry darling. Actually… I haven’t been posting much lately. Seems as if we’re all busy.
I’m listening to Beethoven 9 right now and it makes me think of A Clockwork Orange.
It sounds as if you had some journalistic ethics! That “reporter” (I hate even using that honorable word for that jerk) was nothing more than a glory hound, out for the “big story.” It disgusts me. Hope your work doesn’t keep you so busy we don’t hear from you.
Its better to be well thought of and I think you are…
What is the significance of the Pineapple? I personally love the fruit.
I really enjoy these glimpses into your life. We are both going to have to find time to get back to emailing. Infinite Blessings
You are one multi-faceted, interesting, creative man. I love reading all of you and yours.
Sorry to hear that things haven’t been going all that well for you lately. I can certainly relate to being too busy, but I hope happier times lie ahead for you. You are worthy of them, my friend.
And keep writing those poems. You do create some wonderful ones, from the small portion I’ve seen, anyway.
Enjoy your weekend!