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Tuesday, October 8, 2019

October 9th_My Birthday!



What is a day?

“Let gratitude be the pillow upon which you kneel to say your nightly prayer. 

And let faith be the bridge you build to overcome evil and welcome good.”
- Maya Angelou



Denise Covey & Alyssa McKendry are two with whom I share a birthday.  

Have you ever wondered what people share your birthday?


What are their hopes, their dreams, their life situations, their locations on this war-torn world?

Would one of your "bad" days be Heaven to them?  

Did they go to bed hungry or swallow bitter tears before fitful sleep swallowed them?


"Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time."
- Jean Paul Richter

"The old age of an eagle is better than the youth of a sparrow."
- Greek proverb


On this day in 1849, Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" was published,

just two days after his death from mysterious causes and in odd circumstances, even for him --

 theories include political thugs, rabies, brain lesion, or the most likely, 

a final binge either chosen or forced upon him by brothers of his newly-betrothed, who viewed Poe's interest in their sister as opportunism.

Oddly enough, Edgar Allan Poe is a major character in my THE RIVAL 

with Alice Wentworth the inspiration for Annabel Lee:


  
Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim was published on this day in 1900. 

During a pause in Chapter 13, a French officer muses,  

“Mon Dieu! how the time passes!”; this prompts a reflection by Marlow, Conrad’s narrator: 


"It's extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts.


 Perhaps it's just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome."


 In her Common Reader (First Series),  Virginia Woolf cites the above passage as representative of Conrad’s lasting worth:

"His books, with their air of telling us something very old and perfectly true, which had lain hidden but is now revealed, stir the mind…. 

Complete and still, very chaste and very beautiful, they rise in the memory as, on these hot summer nights, in their slow and stately way first one star comes out and then another."


Will any of our books touch the reader in a like way?  Should we strive to be a touchstone for the person holding our book?


Enough wool-gathering.  Let us end with George Burns' and Mark Twain's thoughts on birthdays:

“I was brought up to respect my elders, so now I don't have to respect anybody.”
- George Burns

"Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually age to 18."
- Mark Twain 

And don't forget:


It's only 99 cents!
and
MIDNIGHT would appreciate a review
for the extra tuna.

10 comments:

  1. Hi Roland - happy birthday for tomorrow - I do hope you'll have some time off - be able to relax and enjoy time out. Birthdays should be treats for us all ... and I hope you and everyone will have a blessed day - cheers Hilary

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    Replies
    1. I'm off today doing home-plumbing ... but at least I got to sleep in! Thanks, Hilary. :-)

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  2. Replies
    1. Thanks for the Tweet Out, Diane. It meant a lot. :-)

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  3. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday, dear Roland..tomorrow. Happy Birthday to you. When I see a list of happenings on my birth date, it makes me think how insignificant I am in time. How the world would have knitted together without me and without little or no consequences. Mark Twain is one of my favorites because he was brilliant AND a MO boy. The quote of Mr. Burns cracks me up, though.

    Teresa

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    Replies
    1. Mark Twain is one of my favorites, too, which is why I make him a character in so many of my novels. He even narrates one of the stories in my latest book.

      Thanks for the book review! And thanks for the birthday wishes!

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  4. Wishing you a Happy, Happy Birthday Roland. May the day bring health, happiness and lots of inspiration. Love the quotes, especially Mark Twain's.

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    1. Thanks, Mason. I'm a big Mark Twain fan, if you haven't already guessed. Midnight, not so much. Mark keeps calling him Bambino (the name of his black cat!)

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  5. Congratulations on your new release Roland. Hope you enjoyed your birthday as much as I enjoyed mine.

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