“Words must have texture like a crisp fall apple.”
“Live every day as if it’s your last because one day you’ll be right!”
….is the way day 3 of summer camp ended. Both of tonight’s keynote speakers were excellent, but the gentleman that I quoted above was absolutely enchanting. Malachy McCourt became a NY Times Best Selling author at the age of 66. He grew up poor, in Limerick Ireland and never made it past sixth grade due to not passing the Primary Exam. He is going to be eighty years old next month and is currently finishing his third book “I Never Drink When I’m Sober”.
We have much to learn from people that have lived twenty years longer than we have. As I sat in that tabernacle and looked at the people around me in the audience, many of whom are published authors and also older than me, with the salty smell of low tide on the nearby beach wafting through the building, I suddenly grasped the real meaning of “feeling small beside the ocean”. From Mr. McCourt on the stage, to all the people I talked and shared with throughout the day, I hold great respect for their talent in this daunting craft.
Writing is hard work. Yes, it’s passionate, exhilarating, and fun, but it IS hard work. Just like any other craft, once you sit down to create it, next comes the examining and critiquing of your creation. Herein begins the uncovering of layer after layer of rules, truths, dos and dont’s discovered and patiently set down by those who have written before us to be shared with us aspiring writers so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. While that is a good thing, it just shows you how high the pyramid is and you are nothing but a tiny brick on the bottom row with so much to learn and so far to go.
Malachy McCourt’s wit, storytelling, and obvious success late in life, with no education, certainly is an inspiration to those of us at the bottom of the pyramid. I think he swooped in and saved a weary group from a long day spent learning how much we have yet to learn. He ended the evening with an Irish song in which we all joined in and then left laughing and ready to come back tomorrow and do it all again.
And so, as another day goes by, I give gratitude for all the footprints in front of me, and…I have written.
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