Breakfast Blogging 'bout Books!
This will have to be short and sweet. This morning I got a note from an old friend G. C. Hmmm. Just realized when she got married a few years ago she did NOT have to change her monogram!! G. complimented me on being funny, and wondered if I had ever thought about writing a book? Well, having been in the book business as a librarian for more than thirty years, forty if you count post retirement, and early jobs as a clerk, various places, I know the fragility of success in being an author. I also have had friends in journalism, who are much aware of the same thing. So unless this blog gets overwhelming readership, and not just the counts because I have now made it my home page, no books from me shall be forthcoming. I have made a policy of counting the cost against the result before entering a large venture. Especially when time is a commodity we all have the same amount of, it is not nearly enough to do everything I may whim to do. But aside from these lofty goals, I am too lazy to put forth a lot of effort into something that would prove costly, and futile.
I do love to write, however. I have done journals since I was in high school and learned that Thoreau, Luther, and many, many others whose work I admired had done them. The majority of these have been for my own amazement, and really are a tool for managing life. When I can write down my thoughts about sundry items, it keeps me from becoming an absolute bore to my friends whom I see day to day. It also keeps me on top of my writing skills, and with my private journals, helps me work through the issues of life that even confront single people with no children or grandchildren about which to be concerned.
We singles have other issues. Aloneness is a big one. In this regard I imagine we give some comfort to those who have never been alone and suddenly find themselves in that position. Why DIDN'T I marry? is another. Money, health, what to do if I need to go to the doctor. I have often leaned as all must from time to time on Philippians 4:19 "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." NASB http://www.biblegateway.com/ This versein context is hooked to the fact that the Philippian believers had been contributing to help out their brethren in another part of Asia, but it has proven to be true in my life.
I think most recently of the need I had when I experience Salmonella poisoning to have someone stay with me and I was able to help out a friend who needed money and was capable of staying with me for six hours. It was a great comfort. I dismissed her after I was finally able to keep down the chicken soup and jello she fed me. Then there was the time when M. , another single friend, was able to drive me to the doctors when I had a concussion a few years ago. Poor thing, her car broke at the doctor's office and the doctor happened to be seeing a patient who offered to drive me to the hospital for a CAT scan. On the doctor's recommendation I went with this lady, who turned out to be the mother of a former student of mine. She even offered me her phone number in case I needed a ride home, too. But independent me decided to call a cab, and that cabbie was a single lady who was looking for a church, and mine happened to be near where she lived. So it went full circle there. And the concussion proved to not be too limiting. I was back to driving in a week.
Well, I digress, and breakfast is eaten, and coffee aka wakeupjuice is being consumed and I must soon depart for the upper regions of my house where the computer does NOT live, to get ready to go to the ladies prayer meeting. After the meeting I hope to hit Curves. I did that last week and it worked out quite well. I only came downstairs for breakfast and coffee, and to clean up the dirt from my clean carpet from the plant I knocked over last night after I got home from Delta Kappa Gamma.
Books. Writing Books.
What I have seen is that many are written few are sold. Less are read. A lot of effort and money goes into publishing. Those that are published mostly have a short life, if any? I have a friend who as a labor of love published a book about her mother that is delightful reading. It is packed with photos, both color and b & w, which makes it more costly to print. As a labor of love, she has been buying and giving the book away to family and friends who are interested. It is a great tribute to her mother, and a good commentary on life in the last century especially in Michigan and other areas in which she lived. A copy resides in our church library, and even there has had limited readership.
Unfortunately people in this video age are NOT reading! This makes this former educator sad. Reading is a great resource, and it is lately becoming less utilized than it was before public education made it available to the masses. It is scary because people who do not investigate issues are prisoners of those whom they hear, and if they are not selective in whom they hear, they can easily be blown about and influenced in their thinking by which ever wind is blowing the strongest.
Well, I was long and eloquent, and my coffee is almost done, and I must depart for the warmer regions of the office upstairs and the place where clothes are put out, and mirrors of all sorts await me. Plus pills, always the pills. I forgot to take my diabetic pills last night and was shocked until I remembered that I had forgotten, when I took my reading prior to breakfast. 134. 134 without pills is pretty good for this diabetic, but my doctor will think differently. Hopefully the day will be better. At some point I will have to tell you about my DKG meeting last night and making beautiful one inch beads out of ugly gift wrap. What fun!
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