I’ll never forget the moment I realized I was middle aged. My glorious wife quietly saying to me, “Honey get your barber to shave your ear hair next time.”
And there it was. Middle age. And it was right on time. Bloody hell!
Throughout my adult life I have been asked to run for various political positions and my answer has always been ‘no’. Like a hard NO!
Turns out: I AM OLD.
So here’s the deal. If I am old I have a few things to get off my chest and no time to waste if I understand the inevitable destination of ‘old’ correctly.
Like changing rooms for example.
When I first arrived in 1958 there was a billboard on Bridge Hill leading down to the Okanagan Lake Bridge. It had a big beautiful BC grown apple with these words emblazoned across it, ‘Coast Japs not welcome!’.
I didn’t use my Time as well as I might. I was careless and self absorbed and arrogant until well into my thirties. I suppose it simply takes Time to really learn what is really important. At least it did for me.
As for me, I’ll revisit Garry from time to time and for as long as my memory is up to the task each time I visit, he and I will be laughing and sharing stories and drinking some delicious wine. We will be seated at ‘Garry’s Table’.
Whereupon eleven year old Tony was sent away to a boarding school in Vernon BC; confronted Hoyme the Darth Vader of his young life and navigated the dark passages of life at a boys school
Writing for profit is a fool’s game. I don’t, I write for myself. Some of my writing is profound, some is important, but most of it is neither of those two things. I am at my best as an observational humourist, filtering the mundane through the ‘amusing’ lens and writing.
David Sedaris is a great American observational humourist and he has unknowingly guided me as I spelunked my way through many a dark, confusing writing tunnel. He taught me to stop worrying about inspiration. He says that human beings are very funny, hilarious at times. The knack he says is to get better at seeing it. He is right, if I have grown as a writer it is because I am better now at ‘seeing’ us as we are, simple and complex, shallow and profound, tragic and hilarious. We are endlessly fascinating, a never ending source of writing inspiration.
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